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Placer Mining, Hydraulic System. 



In Richest Alaska 



AND THE 



Gold Fields of the Klondike 



How they were found, How worked, What fortunes have been made, The extent 

and richness of the Gold Fields, How to get there, 

Outfit required, Climate, 

Together with a History of this Wonderful Land 

From its discovery to the present day, a graphic description of its unlimited 
mineral resources, its topography, animal and vegetable products, 
its people, government and institutions, and prac- 
tical information for gold seekers. 



Prepared under the special supervision of A. J. Munson, the well-known author, 

and editor of " Facts and Fiction," the leading Western 

monthly, and written especially 

By ERNEST INGERSOLL, ESQ. 

Author of " Knocking Round the Rockies," " Crest of the Continent," " Guide 
Book to Western Canada," " The Ice Queen," " The Silver Caves," Etc., 
Etc. Also an extensive traveler throughout all that North- 
western Region for the United Statbs Geological Survey 
and thr Smithsonian Institution, and who has spent 
years in Alaska and the Klondike regions, 

AND ASSISTED BY HENRY W. ; ELLIOTT, ESQ. 

Agent of the United States Government for Twelve Years in Alaska. 



PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED 



THE DOMINION COMPANY, PUBLISHER 

356 Dearborn Street, Chicago, U. S. A. 



(L 



Copyright, 1897, By The Dominion Company. 






v 



^ 



/ 



INTRODUCTION. 



When one of Baronov's Slavonian hunters stood before him 
in the privacy of a special meeting at Sitka, in 1804, and took 
out from his pocket a handful of golden nuggets and scales, say- 
ing as he did so that he knew where there was "plenty more," the 
old Russian Governor chilled him with a fierce gesture of disgust, 
then said to him : "Ivan, I forbid you to go farther in this under- 
taking; not a word about this, or we are all undone; let the Ameri- 
cans and the Englishmen, know that we have gold in these moun- 
tains, then we are ruined; they will rush in on us by thousands, 
and crowd us to the wall — to the death." 

Baronov was right as a Russian fur-trader; he knew that 
word of Ivan's discovery, if given voice, would bring that scourge 
of fur-bearing districts, the miner, into the very depths of Rus- 
sian America instantly, and so he suppressed the news ; he and his 
successor also, suppressed it well. 

But the successors of Baronov were not his equal in money- 
making as fur-traders and managers; they ran into debt, and these 
debts of the Russian American Company induced the Imperial 
Government to part with Alaska to the United States of America 
in 1867. The Russian authorities turned Alaska over to us with 
a good word for its furs and fisheries, and nothing else. 

iii 



IV 



INTRODUCTION. 



Thousands of our people went up to investigate the natural 
resources of Alaska in 1867-70; they found the fisheries and the 
fur seals very quickly, but they were disappointed in the profitable 
search then for precious metals and coal ; the timber and growing 
of useful crops were disappointments too. 

Matters quieted down to a common understanding that there 
was no particular mineral wealth in Alaska until the great Tread- 
well mine was opened late in the "seventies," and the mining 
camp and town of Juneau became firmly established early in the 
"eighties;" since then the opening of one mining camp after 
another has steadily progressed until to-day hardy men are busy 
digging for gold throughout the length and breadth of Alaska. 

The man who "prospects" for gold in Alaska has an infinitely 
more difficult task than he has in California or any of the min- 
ing districts of the Rocky Mountain States. In the Alaskan coun- 
try moss, or "sphagnum," and lichens rankly grow all over the 
earth and rocks of the great interior, so as to completely conceal 
the character of it, while the strange, luxuriant growths of shrubs 
and ferns, grasses and vines completely cover, up to the mountain 
snows, the entire surface outcrop of rocks and soil of the Alaskan 
coast line between our foot of the "30-mile strip" at Fort Simpson, 
up to the confines of Cook's Inlet. 

Searching, therefore, for indications of valuable "mineral" 
in Alaska is tedious, and success is purely accidental — necessarily 
so, for every foot of new territory must be uncovered before the 
least indication of what it really is can be secured. 

No ranches Or farms up there where the tired and hungry 
prospector can refit with food at any season of the year, as he can 
in the States; he encounters there a climate that chains him to 



INTRODUCTION. v 

one place, wherever he may be, when inland, from November till 
the next June following. 

But man possesses an elastic physical organization, and there 
is nothing in the country of Alaska, or in its weather, that will 
successfully bar him out from thoroughly developing its mineral 
wealth wherever it is found within the broad area of that region. 
Life in its borders, and especially in the great interior, is disagree- 
able when contrasted with existence on the gold fields of Califor- 
nia; but that will count for nothing in the minds of men, who, 
seeking for gold, find it in Alaska: because, rough and unpleasant 
as country and climate on the Yukon and its tributaries make the 
life of a miner, yet it is a healthy air he breathes, and he is not 
troubled with sickness of any unusual form. Mosquitoes in the 
summer, of venomous energy, and intense dry cold of the winter 
within the Yukon interior do not destroy him, though they do 
annoy and retard his progress. 

Broadly speaking, yet entirely correct, Alaska possesses three 
distinct zones, the Sitkan and Cook's Inlet district, the Aleutian 
Island and Peninsular district, and the Great Interior or Yukon 
region. Gold has been found in all of them, but chiefly in the 
first and last named districts; it is the climate peculiar to these 
districts that separates and defines them sharply, not the land as 
viewed with regard to itself, but rather the lay of the land with ref- 
erence to the ocean. The Sitkan and Aleutian regions get the 
warmer influence of ocean currents setting north in the great 
Pacific, so as to greatly modify those degrees of cold in winter 
and heat in summer that prevail in the Yukon region. But this 
modification in climate does not give those regions any agricul- 
tural or pastoral possibilities even — not an acre of the cereals ever 



V J INTRODUCTION. 

ripened in Alaska or ever will, as climatic conditions pre- 
vail. 

So, it is a country in its length and breadth which I described 
in detail, twenty years ago, using the following summary : 

"In view of the foregoing what shall we say of the resources 
of Alaska viewed as regards its agricultural or horticultural 
capabilities? 

"It would seem undeniable that owing to the unfavorable 
climatic conditions which prevail on the coast and interior, the 
gloomy fogs and dampness of the former, and the intense pro- 
tracted severity of the winters, characteristic of the latter, unfit 
the Territory for the proper support of any considerable civiliza- 
tion. 

"Men may, and undoubtedly will, soon live here in compara- 
tive comfort, as they labor in mining camps, lumber and ship 
timber mills and salmon factories, but they will bring with them 
everything they want, except fish and game, and when they leave 
the country it will be as desolate as they found it. 

"Can a country be permanently and prosperously settled that 
will not in its whole extent allow the successful growth and ripen- 
ing of a single crop of corn, wheat, or potatoes, and where the 
most needful of any domestic animals cannot be kept by poor 
people? 

"We may with pride refer to the rugged work of settlement 
so successfully made by our ancestors in New England, but it is 
idle to talk of the subjugation of Alaska as a task simply requiring 
a similar expedition of persistence, energy, and ability. In Mass- 
achusetts our forefathers had a land in which all the necessaries 
of life, and many of the luxuries, could be produced from the soil 



INTRODUCTION. Vli 

with certainty from year to year; in Alaska their lot would have 
been quite the reverse, and they could have maintained themselves 
there with no better success than the present inhabitants. Atten- 
tion should be directed to the development of its mineral wealth, 
which I have reason to think will yet prove to be considerable, 
and efforts should be made to stimulate and protect the present 
available industries of the fur trade, the canning of salmon, etc."* 

Twenty years of intelligent and active investigation by thou- 
sands of our people since the publication of this analysis has con- 
firmed its truth beyond cavil or doubt. But the development 
of Alaskan mines and mining, and its salmon canneries, has prac- 
tically ruined ihe fur trade — these industries cannot thrive side by 
side. 

Alaskan mining for the precious metals is in its infancy: not 
one thousandth part of the mineral-bearing surface rock and soil 
of that region has yet been examined; that work is slow and 
tedious in so rugged a country, even for the hardiest and best- 
conditioned prospectors, and the success and the failure of these 
men will from this time forward be constantly in our sight. 

Henry W. Elliot!*. 



* A Report on the Condition of Affairs in the Territory of Alaska, by Henry W. 
Elliott, Washington, 1875 5 P a g es *8 and 19. 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER I. i 

THE DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKE DIGGINGS. 

PAGE 
The first news from the Klondike — Excitement in San Francisco on the arrival 
of the "Excelsior" — The glad news carried around the world — "On to 
the Klondike!" — Scenes along the wharves of Seattle — The golden treas- 
ures of the returned Argonauts — Some of the first citizens of Dawson 
City — The women of Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks — Some good claims 
and those who own them — " Pay dirt," and where it is to be found, ... 15 

CHAPTER II. 

THE YUKON RIVER, ITS PLACER FIELDS AND THEIR DISCOVERY. 

Crater Lake — The Yukon, Alaska's gigantic inland highway — The great rivers 
of the world — River craft — The rival trading companies — Hudson Bay 
officials the first explorers — Gold bars on the Big Salmon — The first big 
strikes — The tented banks of the El Dorado and Bonanza — McCormick 
the original Klondiker — A buckskin bag and its story — The arms of the 
Yukon — Thawing and freezing at the diggings 30 

CHAPTER III. 

ROUTES TO THE ALASKAN INTERIOR. 

Dyea the base of supply for overland travel — The Chilkoot Pass and Lake 
Lindeman trail — The Stick Indian packers — Boat-building on the lakes — 
Shooting Miles Canon, White Horse and Five-Finger or Rink Rapids — 
Stacking supplies by the way — The White and Chilkat Passes — Taku 
Inlet and Fort Macpherson routes — All the way to the Klondike by water 
^Proposed railways to pierce the gold fields, 44 

ix 



x CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER IV. 

THE OUTFIT OF AN ARGONAUT. 

PAGE 

The qualifications of a successful miner — One temptation of the gold-digger — 
Provisions for the journey to Dawson City — Camping outfit and cooking 
utensils — The tool chest of a Lake Lindeman boat-builder — What to wear 
in low temperatures — Supplies for a year's stay — Turnips by the pound — 
The Dawson City storekeeper's scale of prices — Reasons for lower prices 
— The custom houses at Dyea and Lake Bennett — A few pointers for pros- 
pective Alaskans, 79 

CHAPTER V. 

THE MINING CAMPS OF THE UPPER YUKON : THEIR LIFE AND LAWS. 

Phases of human existence in the ice-bound towns — Circle City as a base of 
supplies and the metropolis of the Yukon country — Fort Cudahy and the 
famous Forty-Mile Post — Dogs by the hundred — Homes without the vani- 
ties of civilized regions — Gambling with big stakes — Liquor traffic and its 
evils — The boom at Dawson City — Some strange things about the mail 
service — A small fortune spent in delivering each mail bag — Bottles of 
gold the legal tender — The Canadian mounted police, 95 

CHAPTER VI. 

PLACER MINING. 

Ancient and modern methods as applied to the Klondike fields — How the 
I riches are carried from mountain to gulch and plain — Pans, rockers, 
sluice-boxes, and other implements of the miner's craft — Watching for the 
yellow metal in the streams of muddy water — The wonders of hydraulic 
operations — Methods in vogue on the frozen gravels of Alaska — Opinions 
of experts on the present and future, 121 

CHAPTER VII. 

ALASKAN QUARTZ MINES AND MINING. 

The location of gold deposits on the coast of the southeast — The Great Tread- 
well Mine on Douglass Island — The largest quartz mill in the world — 
Thousands of dollars a day from low-grade ores — Other mines of the section 
— The quartz veins of the Klonkike country — Large amounts of capital 
being gathered to work them — The rich promise of the future — The rules 
which the prospector must follow in his search for hidden treasure — 
Methods employed in working the golden veins — Processes of the rock- 
breaker, stamp-mill, and concentrator, 145 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER VIII. 



XI 



THE MARKETING, SMELTING, ASSAYING, AND COINING OF GOLD. 

PAGE 
What the miner does with the unrefined product of his stamp-mill and concen- 
trator — Processes which the yellow metal must pass through before the 
world sees it as coin — The chlorination and cyanide operations — Acid 
baths to separate the baser metals from the treasure — The great smelting 
furnaces and their daily flood of riches — Among the ingots of pure gold 
at the mint — The assayer's difficult task — The world's output of gold in 
four hundred years 167 

CHAPTER IX. 

MINING LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. 

Early laws on the Yukon — Gold and silver mines the property of kings — The 
establishment of a gold commissioner at Fort Cudahy — The newly promul- 
gated Canadian mining regulations — Alternate claims reserved for the 
Crown — The levying of royalties — Chartering of companies in the North- 
west Territories — Fees for incorporation — Application of the United States 
land laws to Alaska — The Mining Acts of 1866 and 1872 — The miners' 
meetings — Size and location of claims — The camp recorder and his fees, . 191 

CHAPTER X. 

THE NATIVE POPULATION. 

Dark-skinned people found by the miner in the frozen North — Eskimo, Atha- 
bascan, and Thlinget — Uncertainty about the origin of the Innuits — The 
language and customs of a curious race — Strange modes of life near the 
Arctic Circle — The mysteries of the Totem Pole — Dead houses of the Stick 
Indians — Miners of gold who knew the Klondike field long before the 
white man entered the land, 223 

CHAPTER XL 

RESOURCES OF ALASKA. 

President Johnson's "ice-box" — Thirty-five years of Alaskan exports — Dense 
forests of spruce, cedar, and pine — United States Department of Agricul- 
ture's Experimental Station — Alaskan flora — Cranberries and other berries 
— Grain and grass growing — Bituminous coal — Marble — Big game of the 
interior — Bears the one-time terror of the Klondike — Foxes and other fur- 
coated animals — The deer and their threatened extinction — Salmon six feet 
deep — The cod banks — Whaling, 239 



X JJ CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XII. 

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 

PAGE 
The wide difference between the climate of the coast and the interior — What 

gold-seekers will find in the way of weather — Mean temperature at various 
points compared — Influence of the Pacific currents — The highest and 
lowest points of the mercury — The topography of the country — Grandeur 
of scenery on mountain and plain — Remarkable tides of the ocean, . . . 268 

CHAPTER XIII. 

CIVILIZED ALASKA. 

The government, trade, and cities of the oldest parts of the Northern Terri- 
tory — Settlements of the coast and how they are supported — The great 
salmon canneries — The strong hand of Uncle Sam — The Greek Church 
and its work among the natives — The capital and metropolis of the 
territory — What the intrepid missionaries have done for Alaska, ..... 283 

CHAPTER XIV. 

NOTES FROM ALASKAN HISTORY. 

Vitus Bering, an emissary of Peter the Great — Discovery of Mount St. Elias — 
Fourteen lost sailors — Alexander Baranof and the inception of the Russian 
American Company — Spanish attempts to possess Alaska— Russian oppres- 
sion and cruelty — An idyll of Baranof Castle — Purchase by the United 
States— A blood-stained flag— The naming of the territory— Military occu- 
pation and civil government — Governors past and present — Proposed 
legislation, * 3°3 

CHAPTER XV. 

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 

Two ends of the international dispute— Mt. St. Elias a settled point — The 
passage of 141st meridian through the gold fields — The Olney-Paunce- 
fote treaty — The evidence of old time treaties — Behm or Portland 
canal ? — Canadian claims to territory administered by the United States 

Changes in Canadian map — The removal of the Metlakatla Indians 

from Canadian to United States territory— The possession of Juneau and 
Dyea 3 2 Q 



CONTENTS. x {{[ 

CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PRIBYLOV, OR FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 

PAGE 
Chase of the sea otter — Pribylov's discovery — The Seal Island — Educating 

the young — System of reproduction — Movements of seal herds — Male 
seals fighting — Killing bachelor seals — Shooting and spearing — Killing 
young males only — Blaine's plan — Blunders — Vain efforts at pension — 
The boundary question, 335 

CHAPTER XVII. 

REINDEER IN ALASKA. 

Alaskan dogs must go — Introduction of reindeer by Rev. Dr. Sheldon Jack- 
son — Both food and raiment — Purchasing station in Siberia — Distribu- 
tion in Alaska — Fleet of foot and easily supported — Reindeer train 
service to the Klondike — Reindeer milk for Yukon babies — A Siberian 
moneymaker — Reindeer to harness — Character of the fur — Some figures 
on the reindeer industry in Finland, 352 

CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE GOLD FINDS OF HISTORY. 

Gold in the days of Abraham — Solomon's expeditions to Ophir — Edomites as 
Argonauts — Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru — Early attempts by the 
English to find gold in America — North Carolina an " El Dorado " — The 
Georgian " Intrusion " — The days of the Forty-niners — John Marshall and 
his end — Australian and Klondike nuggets compared — The Frazer River 
craze — The " Kaffer circus " — South African mines capitalized at 
$1,500,000,000 — Four hundred years of gold digging — The gold kings of 

the world, 367 

I 

CHAPTER XIX. 

BONANZA KINGS. 

Some of the famous princes of the gold-mining world — From poverty to 
sudden riches — The miners' cabins changed for great palaces and lux- 
urious living — Great fortunes easily acquired and rapidly thrown away — 
Nuggets of pure gold picked up by chance — The best-known cases of 
finding lumps of the pure yellow treasure, ............. 405 



X J V CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER XX. 

Alaska's silent city. 

PAGE 
Auroral display during August— Awe-inspiring mirages — " Dick " Willoughby's 

negative — A splendid business venture — Prince Luigi's vision — The most 

famous mirage anywhere to be found — L. B. French's story of the Silent 

City — How Willoughby made his find — A stone pile for a record vault — 

President Jordan investigates — The scientific explanation of mirages — 

When and where they occur, 450 

CHAPTER XXI. 

THE GLACIERS. 

Wonders of the northern territory — The great ice fields — The formation and 
action of glaciers — What is known of the remarkable Malaspina glacier — 
Some freaks of nature which man studies with intense interest — Some 
mysteries in the frozen land which he cannot solve — The Muir, Guyot, 
Seward and other glaciers, , . 459 

CHAPTER XXII. 

HUNTING AND FISHING. 

Wild country for the huntsman — Big game in the chasms and on the mountains 

— Opportunities of the fishermen — Mallards and canvasback duck — Price „ 

of game in the Sitka market — Native Alaskans not sportsmen — Mosquitoes 
and the Bruians — Suicide rather than die by the attacks of insects — 
Nicholas Huley the hero of a fine bear story — Native huntsmen, .... 479 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 



PAGE 

Sitka, Chief City of Alaska, 17 

Steamer "Queen" and Muir Glacier, 36 

' Street Scene in Dawson City, 53 

Interior of Miner's Cabin, Dawson City, 53 

1 Group of Indian Women and Pappoose, 72 / 

. Miners En route to Klondike, 89 ' 

■ Chilkoot-Mountain Route to Mines, 108 

Mount St. Elias and Muir Glacier, 108 \ 

Old Russian Block House, 125 

Hydraulic Mining in Silver Bow Basin, Near Juneau, . . 144 

Group of Miners and Indians, 161 

Group of Klondike Gold Miners, 161 

Miner's House and Native's Totem Pole, 180 

Ten Thousand Seals, 197 

Klondike Indian Curios, 216 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

Oldest House in Juneau, 233 

Old Russian Stockade on the Yukon, 252 

Indian Burying Ground, 269 

Chilkoot Coat, 288 

Shooting the Rapids En route to Klondike, '. 305 

Entering the Rapids, Overland Route to the Mines, . 324 

Passing the Miners Over the Chilkoot Pass, 341 

Climbing the Mountain Over Chilkoot Pass, 360 

Forty-Mile Creek, 365 

Camping Out on the Chilkoot Mountain, 376 

Bonanza Creek Valley, 381 

Unloading Supplies for the Miners at Dawson City, . 388 

Third House Built in Dawson City, 397 

Steamer "Portus B. Weare" Ice Bound at Circle City, 404 

Miner's Cabin on the Klondike, 409 

Klondike Gold Mining, Showing Sluice, ......... 420 

Saw Mill Owned by Jos. Ladue, 4 2 5 

Juneau— Nearest City to Chilkoot Pass, 43 2 

Placer Mining — Hydraulic System, 44 1 

kodakers on the yukon, 44 8 



s 



JJ 



CHAPTER I. 

THE DISCOVERY OF THE KLONDIKE DIGGINGS. 

The first news from the Klondike — Excitement in San Francisco on the arrival of 
the " Excelsior" — The glad news carried around the world — "On to the Klon- 
dike!" — Scenes along the wharves of Seattle — The golden treasures of there- 
turned Argonauts — Some of the first citizens of Dawson City— The women of 
Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks— Some good claims and those who own them 
— " Pay dirt," and where it is to be found. 

THROUGH the Golden Gate and into the beautiful 
waters of San Francisco Bay steamed the modest 
little craft "Excelsior" on the morning of July 14, 1897. 
No salvos of artillery marked her arrival, not a whistle 
in the harbor blew a "Welcome Home!" no dipping 
pennants indicated that a few hours later her name 
would be carried around the world and be on the lips of 
millions of people. As had happened many times before, 
the good ship made slowly to her wharf and ten minutes 
after she had made her hawsers fast the glad news of the 
gold-finds on the Yukon and the Klondike had been 
spread broadcast over the land, from ocean to ocean, 
from Texas to Maine, and before long had crossed the 
seas to other lands. 

Such was the arrival in San Francisco of the forty 
hardy spirits who months, and some even years before, 
had gone out to the frozen lands of Alaska in the attempt 
to wrest fortune from the hands of fate, and who now re- 
turned triumphant, bearing with them their pots of pre- 
cious gold. The stories they told, many * of them well 

15 



j 5 THE GOLD CRAZE OF 1897. 

authenticated, of fortunes made in a night, of nuggets of 
pure gold worth twenty double eagles, of single " pans " 
worth from $500 to $1000, of cities but a few months old, 
of rivers and lakes unknown to geography, of hardships 
and terrible sufferings and of the princely claims on the 
Bonanza and El Dorado — these and other stories like 
them flew over the land like fire over a parched prairie. 
The gold craze of the year of our Lord 1897 was begun ! 

HALF A MILLION IN GOLD. 

This vanguard of fortune finders brought with them 
over a half million of dollars worth of gold. Not one of 
them carried less than $5000 and from this figure the 
amounts secured ran up to almost $90,000. Some of 
this wealth was in the shape of nuggets the size of hazel 
nuts and from this went down through various sizes to 
the proverbial dust. It was carried loose in pockets, in 
tin cans, in canvas bags, in wooden boxes and some of 
it wrapped up in paper. 

Three days after the arrival of the "Excelsior," the 
country was again stirred up by the announcement that 
the " Portland," another ship engaged in the Alaskan 
trade, had put into Seattle fourteen days out from St. 
Michaels with another band of successful miners from the 
Klondike country. There were sixty in this party and 
they carried with them in native gold about $700,000. 
If the hamlets and cities of the United States were look- 
ing for confirmation of the stories flashed over the world 
earlier in the week, the arrival of the " Portland " afforded 
it. Immediately men, and some few women, of all sorts 



RUSH TO THE GOLD FIELDS. jg 

and conditions, representing - every trade and profession, 
from every State in the Union, those who had thriving 
businesses of their own and those who had none, high and 
low, rich and poor, weak and strong, venturesome and 
timid, those who had seen service in other mining coun- 
tries and those absolutely without experience, began the 
rush toward Alaska and the rivers of promise. The 
scenes during the past weeks along the wharves of 
Seattle, San Francisco and other Pacific ports baffle de- 
scription. So great at times has been the struggle for 
positions on boats going to the northern ports, that the 
passengers on the down trip have left the boats with 
difficulty on account of the press due to those seeking to 
take their places. The rush shows no sign of abatement 
and is likely to assume even greater proportions along 
toward the end of the next spring, when the passage 
to the gold fields by way of the Yukon River opens up. 

FIRST WHITE WOMAN THERE. 

Among the most fortunate of them who have thus far 
returned to this country bearing gold with them is Prof. 
J. S. Lippey, who was formerly connected with the Y. M. 
C. A. of Seattle, as its secretary. He brought down 
with him about $85,000 in bullion. His wife accom- 
panied him all the while he was in Alaska, having been the 
first white woman to cross the great divide, and at the 
time she left she had the further distinction of being the 
only woman in camp. The Lippeys went to the Klon- 
dike from Forty Mile Creek, where there were quite a 
number of women. Mrs. Lippey is a small, brown. 



25 Life itf the Klondike. 

haired, brown-eyed woman, tanned until her face is as 
brown as her hair and her eyes. She has this to say 
about her experiences in Alaska : 

"The country is beautiful, and quite warm in sum- 
mer. It is different, you know, in winter. Still, even 
in the coldest weather, I went out every day, though not 
very far. I was the first white woman to reach Klon- 
dike Creek, and was the only one in our camp. Mrs. 
Berry was the only white woman I had to speak to 
while I was there. She was with her husband in the 
next camp, a mile away. 

" How did we live? " repeated Mrs. Lippey, in answer 
to a question. "Well, at first we lived in a tent. It was 
twelve feet by eighteen, eight logs high, with mud and 
moss roof, and moss between the chinks, and had a door 
and window. Mr. Lippey made the furniture — a rough 
bed, table, and some stools. We had a stove — there 
are plenty of stoves in that country — and that was all 
we needed. The cabin was cosy and warm, I looked 
after the housekeeping and Mr. Lippey after the mining." 

"As to eating," continued Mrs. Lippey, "well, we had 
no fresh meat, no fresh milk, no fresh fruit, no eggs ; it 
was all canned food, but still we kept in good health." 

RETURN OF THE FORTUNATE. 

William Stanley, formerly a blacksmith in Seattle, 
went to Alaska two years ago, and was among those 
who returned on the "Portland." He had with him $115,- 
000 worth of gold, found on Bonanza Creek, about five 
miles above Dawson City. 



SOME OF THE LUCKY ONES. 2 I 

Henry Anderson, a Swede, who is well known in 
Seattle, came back with a good supply of gold dust and 
$45,000 he had received for half his claim on the Klon- 
dike. 

Frank Keller, of Los Angeles, Cal., went to Alaska 
last year, and returned with $35,000 received for his 
claim. 

William Sloat, a former dry goods merchant of Naina- 
mo, B. C, has $52,000 received for his claim. 

A fellow resident of Nainamo, named Wilkinson, sold 
his claim for $40,000. 

Jack Home, a professional pugilist of Tacoma, was 
among the few who might be called unlucky. He brought 
back only $6000 worth of dust. 

Frank Phiscator, of Baroda, Mich., has $96,000 worth 
of dust and nuggets. He was one of the first to go to 
the Klondike. 

MILLIONS IN NUGGETS. 

Joseph Ladue, who originally came from the rural dis- 
tricts in the vicinity of Binghamton, N. Y., and spent 
most of his life working about the farms of the neighbor- 
hood, was fortunate enough to have staked off the claim 
upon which most of the present city of Dawson is located. 
He had been in Alaska for five years, having spent most 
of his time, until the gold fever struck him, running a saw- 
mill, out of which he claims to have made money, notwith- 
standing that labor was scarce at $15. 

The luck of Clarence J. Berry, formerly a fruit raiser 
in Southern California, is the greatest thus far on record. 
He made a trip to the country around Forty Mile Creek 



22 A THOUSAND OUNCES OF DUST. 

a couple of years ago, but through lack of funds was un- 
successful. He returned to California and after marry- 
ing decided to return to the gold fields with his newly- 
wedded wife, and it was a fortunate move for him. In 
five months he succeeded in removing $130,000 from one 
of his claims, of which sum he paid out about $20,000 in 
wages to his men. In the meantime, his wife worked a 
little claim of her own at odd moments and made about 
$10,000 out of it. The couple have returned to San 
Francisco, where Berry has received an offer of $2,000,- 
000 for his Alaskan holding. 

Robert Kooks brought back $14,000 in gold dust and 
$12,000 he received for his half interest in a claim. He 
has an interest in another claim, and intends to return 
after he has had rest and enjoyment. 

J. B. Hollingshed, after two years spent in the diggings, 
can show $25,000 worth of dust, and still possesses a 
claim, to which he intends to return. 

M. S. Norcross was one of those who were looked 
upon as unfortunate. He selected a claim but became 
ill and could not work it, so he was compelled to sell out 
for $10,000. 

Thomas Flack has only $6000 worth of dust, but he 
has a claim at Klondike for which he has been offered 
$50,000. He intends to return to work it himself. 

Con Stamatin returned with a third share of $33,000 
worth of dust taken out in forty-five days' work. 

PLENTY OF GOLD IN ALASKA. 

"I brought down just 1000 ounces of dust and sold it 
to the smelting works," said William Kulju. " I sold my 



PROSPECTING ON THE KLONDIKE. 23 

claim for $25,000. When I went to Klondike last sum- 
mer I had only a few dollars and a pack. Now I am 
going home to Finland, but I am coming back next year." 
' John Marks, another of those who came down on the 
" Portland," had with him $1 1,500 in dust. In a conversa- 
tion recently, he said: — "There is plenty of gold in 
Alaska, more, I believe, than the most sanguine imagine, 
but it cannot be obtained without great effort and endur- 
ance. The first thing for a poor man to do when he 
reaches the country is to begin prospecting. As snow is 
from two to five feet deep, prospecting is not easy. Snow 
must first be shoveled away, and then a fire built on the 
ground to melt the ice. As the ground thaws the shaft 
must be sunk until bed rock is reached. The average 
prospector has to sink a great many shafts before he 
reaches anything worth his while. If gold is found in 
sufficient quantities to pay for working, he may begin 
drifting from the shaft, and continue to do so as long as 
he finds enough gold to pay." 

Frederick Lendsseen returned with $13,000 worth of 
gold after two years spent in Alaska. He sums up his 
opinion as follows: — "I have had considerable exper- 
ience in mining, and say, without hesitation, that Alaska 
is the richest country I have ever seen. I have an in- 
terest in a claim near Dawson and am going back in the 
spring." m 

Greg Stewart brought back $45,000 received from his 
claim and a good quantity of dust he had taken out 
before selling. 

Hollingshed and Stewart who worked as partners had 
$25,000 worth of dust. 



24 REPORTS NOT EXAGGERATED. 

Mrs. Eli Gage, daughter-in-law of Secretary Lyman 
J. Gage, and daughter of Portus B. Weare, Manager of 
the North American Trading and Transportation Com- 
pany, returned to Chicago on July 27th from a trip to 
the Yukon country. Her husband represents the com- 
pany at Dawson, and she has been with him three 
months. She has returned to Dawson to spend the 
winter, sailing in August for the far northland, where 
wealth is now to be obtained with such comparative ease. 
Mrs. Gage is enthusiastic about the country she has 
visited. She investigated its resources, had every op- 
portunity to see aright what the real situation there is, 
and declares that none of the reports regarding the rich- 
ness of the Alaskan land for the gold-seekers has been 
exaggerated, though about other matters in the Klon- 
dike region many false reports have reached the United 
States. 

Mrs. Gage says there is an immense amount of gold 
in the Yukon district. Any man who has pocket monei 
and about $500 for "grub-staking" a claim can safely 
go to the Klondike region and expect to reap a liberal 
reward for his efforts. If he goes poorly equipped am 
supplied, he may be compelled to suffer for his lack of 
wisdom, but he will not find himself among hard-hearted 
people. He will be helped if he deserves assistance. 

On her way home, Mrs. Gage was compelled to hide 
in a drawing-room on the cars when it became known 
that she had just come from the Klondike country. 
Everybody was anxious to learn about the gold discov- 



ARRIVAL OF THE GOLD-HUNTERS. 2 e 

eries. Mrs. Gage says the stories of probable starvation 
have little foundation, the supplies taken from Seattle 
and San Francisco by the two trading companies being 
sufficient to prevent suffering during the coming winter. 

Here are some of the interesting things this wide- 
awake American woman finds to say about her future 
home and her experiences there : 

" We waited several days at St. Michael's for the river 
steamer for Dawson City. When the boat arrived it 
was loaded with the gold-hunters and their spoils. The 
gold was carried in bags, bottles, and sacks, and one man 
had his fortune in an old boot. They came tumbling on 
the deck of the ' Portland ' in all sorts of outlandish 
costumes. 

" No one would say how much he had himself, but he 
very willingly made a guess at what his neighbor had. 
Their talk would excite the coolest head. There was 
nothing but gold in the Klondike. I absorbed the pre- 
vailing excitement and listened to the wonderful stories 
with a thrilling pulse. 

"We sailed from St. Michael's July 3d. It is wonder- 
ful how fascinating the life on the frontier becomes. The 
man or woman who gets a taste of it and succeeds and 
thrives by it rarely gets to like anything else. 

" It was most interesting to study the men and women 
who had taken the desperate chance and had won. Some 
of them had gone into the region with barely enough to 
keep body and soul together. They had only made the 
attempt as a last resort. Having failed to make a sue- 



2 5 ABANDONED CLAIMS. 

cess at home, they had resolved to make one plunge and 
die or come out rich. 

" The most pathetic story of this kind was that of Mr. 
and Mrs. Berry. They went into the Klondike without 
even a grub stake. They were on their wedding tour, 
and when they left they told their friends they might 
never get back to Fresno alive. 

" This pair sat on the deck of the " Portland ' fifteen 
months after their departure, and their plans embraced 
bigger things than scheming- to find a man who would 
loan them $60 while they risked their lives trying to get 
over the mountains and into the placer district. They 
were like two children — Mr. Berry planning to buy the 
farm upon which he has been unable to make living 
wages, and Mrs. Berry getting ideas on the newest 
things in diamond rings. She had been forced to omit 
this feature of the ceremony when they started for 
Alaska, but, like all women, she was pleased that the 
ring could now be bought. 

"The abandoned claims will make many a man, not 
yet on the scene, rich. There are many claims along 
the best known creeks that have been abandoned. The 
prospectors would be digging on them contentedly earn- 
ing big money every day. There would them come a 
report from some neighboring place of fabulously rich 
finds, and there would follow at once a wild rush. In 
this way claims that had paid moderately were passed 
in search of others that would banish poverty in a 
month." 



THREE MONTHS' WORK. 2 - 

William Stanley, one of the argonauts who returned 
on the " Portland," was formerly a resident of Seattle, and 
lived on Taylor Street, four blocks below Jackson. His 
story runs as follows : 

" My son and myself and two partners, whom we 
picked up on the way to Juneau, had been wandering 
through the Yukon districts for several months with 
little or no success, when, in the latter part of last Sep- 
tember, we heard of the Klondike discoveries. At this 
time we were en route along the Stewart River, being 
bound for Forty-Mile, and were at Sixty-Mile when the 
news of the strike first reached us. We hastened to the 
Klondike, stopping first at the mouth of the stream. 
The day following our arrival the little steamer ' Ellis,' 
with 1 50 wildly excited miners, who had also heard of the 
news, arrived. There was a rush and a mad run for the 
new discoveries along Bonanza and El Dorado Creeks. 
We brought up first on El Dorado Creek, locating claims 
Nos. 25, 26, 53, and 54. That was about the first of 
October. We prospected 25 and 26 until we satisfied 
ourselves that we had good pay dirt in each. Then we set 
about making permanent improvements for the winter, 
such as building cabins. This done, we set to work 
sinking prospect holes in different parts of the gulch. 
We had no blankets. Good pay dirt was taken from 
every hole, and at the end of three months' work we 
cleaned up $1 12,000. In getting this much gold we did 
not drift over 200 feet altogether up and down the 
stream. Nor did we cross-cut the pay streak. We 



28 



AVERAGE OF FANS. 



calculate that these two, and also 53 and 54, will run up- 
wards of $1,000 to the lineal foot, and I figure that we 
have fully $2,000,000 in sight in the four claims. There 
is little or no difference in the 55 and 56 claims on El Do- 
rado. In fact, there are no spotted claims on the creek. 
It is a case of all gold and yards wide and yards 
deep. Anywhere you run a hole down you find the 
pay streak. 

" Our pans will average $3 throughout all of the 
El Dorado claims. Many go as high as $1 50, and some 
still better. I took out $750 in five pans, and did not 
pick the pans, either. I took the pan against my breast 
and simply scooped it in off the bedrock. 

" To make a long story short, I think El Dorado Creek 
is the greatest placer proposition in the world. There 
has never been anything discovered on the face of the 
globe like it. 

" In my opinion, there will be a number of them, too. 
Bear Gulch is almost another El Dorado. There is ah 
double bedrock in Bear Gulch, though but very few 
know it. The bedrocks are three feet apart. The gold 
in the lower bedrock is as black as your shoe, and in 
the top bedrock it is as bright as that found in the 
El Dorado. 

"We own No. 10 claim below discovery on Bear 
Gulch, and also 20 and 21 on Last Chance Gulch above 
discovery. We prospected for three miles on Last 
Chance, and could not tell the best place to locate dis- 
covery claim. The man making discovery of a creek is 



TROUBLE SECURING LABOR. 2 g 

entitled by law to stake a claim and take also an adjoin- 
ing one, or, in other words, two claims, so you see he 
wants to get in a good locality on the creek or gulch. 

" Hunker Gulch is highly looked to. I think it will 
prove another great district, and some good strikes 
have also been made on Dominion Creek. Indian 
Creek is also becoming famous. 

" What are we doing with all the money we take out ? 
Well, we paid $45,000 spot cash for a half-interest in 
claim No. 32 El Dorado. We have also loaned $5,000 
each to four parties on El Dorado Creek, taking mort- 
gages on their claims, so you see we are well secured. 
No ; I don't want any better security for my money 
than El Dorado claims, thank you. I only wish I had a 
mortgage on the whole creek. 

" We had a great deal of trouble securing labor in the 
prospecting of our properties. Old miners would not 
work at any price. We could occasionally rope in a 
greenhorn and get him to work for a few days at $15 a 
day. Six or eight miners worked on shares for us for 
about six weeks, and when we settled it developed that 
they had earned in that length of time $5,300 each. 
That was pretty good pay, wasn't it ? We paid one old 
miner $12 for three hours' work, and offered to continue 
him at that rate, but he would not have it, and went out to 
hunt a claim of his own. I am going back to the Yukon 
in the spring, but not to work. When I threw down 
my shovel and pick it was for the last time," 



CHAPTER II. 

THB YUKON RIVER, ITS PLACER FIELDS AND THEIR 
DISCOVERY. 

Crater Lake — The Yukon, Alaska's gigantic inland highway — The great rivers of 
the world — River craft — The rival trading companies — Hudson Bay officials 
the first explorers — Gold bars on the Big Salmon — The first big strikes — The 
tented banks of the El Dorado and Bonanza — McCormick the original Klon- 
diker — A buckskin bag and its story — The arms of the Yukon — Thawing and 
freezing at the diggings. 

ALMOST at the foot of Chilkoot Pass in the Kotusk 
Mountains there lies a little body of water known 
as Crater Lake. From this diminutive inland sea, there 
stretches away a continuous water-course to Bering Sea/ 
a distance of almost 2,000 miles. Such is the extent of 
the mighty Yukon and its headwaters. What the Ama- 
zon and La Plata are to South America, what the Missis- 
sippi is to the central portion of the United States, and 
what the Kono-o and Niofer are to Central Africa, this 
and more is the Yukon to Alaska. It is the great natu- 
ral inland highway without which the opening up of the 
vast interior to civilization and trade would have been 
arduous and to a great extent impossible. The Yukon 
River proper extends from Fort Selkirk, at the conflu- 
ence of the Lewes and Pelly Rivers, in the Northwest 
Territory, in a northwesterly direction 400 miles to the 
Arctic Circle, and then to the southward 1,350 miles to 
the sea, its total length to Fort Selkirk being 1,750. Of 
this distance 1,500 miles lies in United States territory. 
The 360 miles of waterway from Crater Lake to Fort 
Selkirk are made up of a succession of lakes con- 
30 



TERRITORY DRAINED BY THE YUKON. * j 

nected by streams of varying length, passing finally into 
the Lewes River. Pelly River, which unites with the 
Lewes to form the Yukon, lies to the northward of the 
latter, and is about 275 miles in length. 

The first accurate description of the Yukon River was 
furnished by Dr. W. H. Dall, of the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion. He was a member of the expedition sent out in 
1865 by the Western Union Telegraph Company to 
make the preliminary surveys for a telegraph line to join 
the old world with the new, the same to be carried over 
Bering Strait into Siberian Russia. While the party was 
at work in Alaska the Atlantic Cable w r as put into suc- 
cessful operation and the expedition was recalled. 

The territory drained by the Yukon and its tributaries 
has been approximately estimated at 331,000 square 
miles. Its size may be judged better by comparison 
with the other great rivers of the world which are esti- 
mated as follows : 

Names. Length in miles. Area drained in sq. miles. 

Mackenzie, 2,4c© 440,000 

Missouri-Mississippi, 4,200 1,250,000 

Amazon, 4,000 2,500,000 

La Plata, 2,300 1,250,000 

Hoang-Ho, 2,700 540,000 

Lena, 2,550 600,000 

Yang-tsi, 3,300 500,000 

Kongo, 3,300 1,500,000 

Niger, 4,000 1,400,000 

The Yukon varies in width during the lower part of 
its course from one to ten miles, and its delta spreads 
out to a width of sixty miles. As it falls away to the 






o 2 TRAFFIC ON THE YUKON. 

sea from the Arctic Circle its channel is cut up by thou- 
sands of islands. The current in places is strong and 
it is reported that at certain seasons the waters of Ber- 
ing Sea are fresh fully fifteen miles from the mouth of 
the Yukon. For the better part of its distance the river 
is shallow, and only navigable to light-draught boats, 
under four or five hundred tons burden. The stern- 
wheel type is the only craft used on the river, and even 
during the high-water season extreme caution has to be 
used in threading the channels. It is believed that a 
powerful light-draught boat of not more than one hun- 
dred and fifty tons would be able to pass Five-Finger 
Rapids and go three hundred miles further through 
Hootalinqua River to the head of Teslin Lake. Among 
tributaries of the Yukon reported navigable for light 
craft are the Andreafski for 50 miles, the Shagluk for 
50 miles, Innoko for 50 miles, Tanana for 300 miles, 
Klanarchargut for 25 miles, Beaver Creek for 100 miles, 
Birch Creek for 150 miles, Koyukuk River for 300 miles, 
Porcupine for 100 miles, Stewart for 150 miles, Pelly for 
250 miles, and the McMillan for 200 miles; but these 
estimates are largely guesswork. 

Traffic on the Yukon River is largely controlled by the 
Alaska Commercial Company and the North American 
Transportation & Trading Company, both companies 
having stations on St. Michael's Island and at various 
points along the river. The former company has two 
vessels, one of two hundred tons and the other of three 
hundred; the latter has a fleet of six boats, the "Weare," 



DISCOVERIES MADE. ,.% 

the "Cudahy," the "Hamilton," the "Healy," the 
" Power," and the " Klondike." All these steamers 
carry both freight and passengers. 

Except during ten, or, at the most, twelve, weeks dur- 
ing the summer the Yukon is ice-bound from its mouth 
to the headwaters. Some years it opens up about June 
ist, but usually it is nearer the middle of the month before 
the boats begin their trips. About September ist traffic 
ceases, and severe weather is experienced. 

The history of the development of the Yukon gold 
mines extends back a great many years ; in fact, 
long before the northwestern territory came into the 
possession of the United States. As has been the case 
in other fields, the earliest discoverers of the yellow 
metal in the country deserve little credit, inasmuch as 
they failed to follow up their findings, and hence the dis- 
coveries have had little or no influence on the progress 
of the country and absolutely none on the more recent 
developments around the head-waters and along the 
valley of the gigantic Yukon. 

This country was originally exploredby the agents of the 
Hudson Bay Company, in 1 840, and as early as 1 860 it was 
reported that gold in small quantities had been unearthed 
by these officials, but little was heard of it. George 
Holt, who, in 1878, made the trip from Lake Lindeman to 
the Hootalinqua River, which runs into Lewes River, prob- 
ably deserves the credit for opening up the Yukon gold 
fields. Returning by the same route, he reported having 



- 4 Miners and prospectors. 

made finds along the Hootalinqua, which is the miners' 
name (due to a mistake) oftheTeslintoo River, which flows 
down from Teslin Lake, on the British Columbia border. 
He never went back to the interior, but the news he fur- 
nished of the country caused Edward Bean to lead a 
goodly train up over Chilkoot Pass and down the chain of 
lakes which lead to the Yukon, during the early 8o's. 
Bean came from Sitka, and was one of the original owners 
of the Treadwell mine property. The party met with in- 
different success, finding the coveted treasure, but not in 
sufficient quantities to encourage them in further effort. 
The opening was made, however, and miners and prospec- 
tors began going over the Chilkoot Pass in large numbers. 
These parties did their work for the most part on Cana- 
dian soil and principally along the Lewes River and its 
tributaries. They ascended the Big Salmon and found 
the precious metal on all its bars. The finds on Cana- 
dian soil, however, until quite recently, were none of 
them sufficiently alluring to cause a stampede towards 
them. 

FINDS IN THE YUKON DISTRICT. 

Up to 1886, the finds in the Yukon district were con- 
fined almost entirely to territory traversed by its head- 
waters, embracing the White, Stewart, Pelly, Lewes and 
Hootalinqua Rivers. In that year, what may be called 
the middle division of the Yukon, extending from Fort 
Selkirk to the mouth of the Tanana River, was first 
opened up by the discovery, on Forty Mile Creek, of 
gold in goodly quantities. This caused a general cessa- 
tion of operations along the head-waters, and the largely- 



THE FIRST GOOD STRIKE. ^ 

increased working force due to this source caused claims 
on Sixty Mile, Miller, Glacier, Birch and Koyukuk 
Rivers to open up in rapid succession. Forty Mile and 
Sixty Mile Creeks rise in the Ratzel Mountains, which 
divide the Tanana from the Yukon valley, and flow 
into the Yukon from the west. They receive their 
names from the fact that they were considered respec- 
tively forty and sixty miles from the trading-post, Fort 
Reliance, which, up to 1896, was the commercial centre for 
this section of the Yukon country. The real distances 
are somewhat greater, measured as are all these dis- 
tances along the windings of the river, which is the high- 
way of travel. 

UPBUILDING OF CIRCLE CITY. 

The first good strike on Birch Creek was made in 
1893, an d this gave rise to the upbuilding of Circle City. 
This remained the most important mining camp in this 
part of Alaska until December, 1896, when it was almost 
wiped off the map by the exodus to the Klondike, where 
Dawson City speedily arose at the junction of the Klondike 
and Yukon Rivers. J. O. Hestwood, of Seattle, who has 
recently returned from the gold fields, has told how gold 
was first found on the Klondike. 

"The discovery," he said, "was made by an old 
hunter named George McCormick, a former resident of 
Illinois, who is called "Siwash George," and has been 
on the Yukon for eight years. He is married to a squaw 
and has several half-breed children. McCormick went 
up in the spring of 1896 to the mouth of the Klondike 



.,g NO CLAIM-JUMPING THERE. 

to fish, as salmon weighing ninety pounds are caught 
where this stream meets the Yukon. The salmon didn't 
run as usual and McCormick, hearing from the Indians 
of rich places nearby, where gold could be washed out 
in a frying pan, started out to prospect. 

" Near what is now Dawson City, on July 9th, he 
struck very rich pay dirt in a side hill. As soon as news 
of his discovery spread, men from Circle City and Forty- 
Mile rushed in. The richest claims are in Bonanza Creek, 
which empties into the Klondike from the south, three miles 
above Dawson City. There are three claims in that dis- 
trict, each 500 feet long, extending clear across the 
creek on which it is located. No one can file an addi- 
tional claim until he has recorded his abandonment of 
his old claim, according to Canadian law, and it must not 
be forgotten that this river is far within the Canadian 
boundaries. 

" In the adjoining Hunker district there are 200 claims. 
The two districts have been well prospected, but further 
up the Klondike is much territory which has never been 
even traveled over. 

" Old miners declared that the north side of the Yukon 
was worthless, so no prospecting was done until McCor- 
mick started in. There is no claim-jumping, as the 
Canadian laws are rigid and well enforced by the presence 
of the Mounted Police. 

THE RUSH FOR KLONDIKE. 

"There was a rush for Klondike as soon as the dis- 
covery was made known and I was among the first to 



PROSPECTING IN THESE REGIONS. , Q 

get there. I had poor luck at first and after a few days 
started to leave, but I had only got a short distance down 
the river when my boat got stuck in the ice and I went 
back to Dawson City. I bought a claim and it proved 
one of the richest in the district. 

" In the region now worked there are a score of 
creeks, each rich in gold deposits. The creeks compris- 
ing the bonanza districts are Bonanza, El Dorado, Vic- 
toria, Adams, McCormick, Reddy Bullion, Nugget Gulch, 
Bear, Baker and Chee-Chaw-Ka. In the Hunker district 
are the Main Fork, Hunker and Gold Bottom Creeks. 

CREEKS RICH IN GOLD DEPOSITS. 

The banks of these streams are dotted with white tents 
of miners, and a prettier sight it would be hard to find. 
Over on Dominion Creek gold has been found, and 300 
miners started for that place the day we started for San 
Francisco. The surface prospects are quite as favorable 
as on the Bonanza." 

McCormick was not allowed to be the sole proprietor 
of the Klondike for a very long period. About the mid- 
dle of August his supplies ran low and he dispatched 
two Indian assistants to a settlement on the Yukon, half 
way between Forty-Mile and Sixty-Mile Creeks, to re- 
plenish the larder. The "P. B. Weare," of the North 
American Transportation and Trading Company, hap- 
pened to be stopping at the settlement at the time the 
Indians arrived and their tales of the rich finds on the 
Klondike caused the entire crew of the vessel to desert 
and hasten away to the new El Dorado. After getting 



4o THE TRAGIC TALE. 

a native crew together, the " Weare " pushed on down 
the river and spread broadcast through the mining camps 
the news which since has electrified the world. 

Among the romances which will be forever associated 
with the history of the Yukon none savors so strongly 
of the rough and ready country through which it wends 
its way than does the story of the founding of the North 
American Transportation & Trading Company. In 
the winter of 1892 Porteus B. Weare, of Chicago, and 
Captain John J. Healy met in Chicago after a separation 
of years. 

They had been companions in the fur trade with the 
Indians at old Fort'Benton, on the Missouri River, in 
1865. Mr. Weare had returned to civilization and 
taken up his residence in Chicago, but Captain Healy 
had penetrated to the head of Chilkoot inlet, established 
the trading post at Ty-a (now known as Dyea), which 
bears his name, and continued his traffic with the Indians 
until he became known as " Chief of the Blackfeet." 

In the course of their reminiscent talk Healy drew 
from his pocket a buckskin bag and displayed to his old 
comrade of the camp and trading post the yellow con- 
tents of the crude purse. Then he told the tragic tale 
of how the gold had come into his possession. The 
substance of his narrative was this : 

One fearfully cold day in the latter part of Decem- 
ber, 1 89 1, two or three Indians entered the post and 
offered for barter the bag containing several hundred 
dollars' worth of dust. Healy eagerly inquired where 



ORGANIZATION OF A COMPANY. . j 

and how they secured the gold. Their answer was that 
it had been obtained from Tom Williams, a trapper, who 
had made the long pilgrimage from the interior, along 
the Yukon, but had died before reaching the post. 

The Indians were able to give the trader a general 
description of the locality which the dying trapper had 
described to them as the spot where he discovered what 
he believed would prove to be a rich gold field. 

As Mr. Weare knew his friend to be a practical 
miner, his faith in the sagacity and the judgment of the 
latter was strong. The story also awakened in him the 
latent longing to taste once more the pleasures of 
frontier adventure. The result was the organization 
of a company which sent steamers to the headwaters of 
the Yukon and opened up the country. Captain Healy 
has been in Alaska fifteen years, and is one of the best 
known men in the country. 

The territory around the mouth of the Yukon is very 
low. In fact, the reason for the chief trading station for 
this section of Alaska being placed on an island sixty 
miles above the usual entrance to the river is that the 
delta for miles around is entirely covered in the late 
spring or early summer by freshets due to the ice melting 
in the river. Owing to the way in which theYukon spreads 
out as it passes into Bering Sea the water is very shallow 
and eight feet is about the maximum depth reached in 
any of the numerous channels. 

The two most interesting arms of the Yukon are the 
Lewes and Pelly Rivers, which unite to form it. The 



42 CHIEF TRIBUTARY. 

former, is all-important on account of the part it plays in 
the overland route from Juneau to the gold fields. Its 
chief tributary, the Hootalinqua, is the stream over which 
the Canadians expect to see carried the bulk of the inland 
travel. The Pelly River rises in Pelly Lakes, near the 
crest of the Rocky Mountains which there form the 
divide between the basins of the Yukon and MacKenzie 
Rivers. These lakes are precisely where the 129th 
meridian crosses the 626. parallel of latitude; and 
thence the river flows northwesterly over 500 miles 
before reaching Fort Selkirk. The country through 
which it passes is mountainous and wild, and has been 
explored but a very slight extent. The Yukon, after 
passing Fort Selkirk, varies from one-half to three- 
quarters of a mile in width. On the northern side 
it is bounded by an almost continuous wall of rock 
of volcanic origin, and on the south the bank is low and 
sandy. After passing the White River the course is 
almost due north through a mountainous country. The 
scenery is wild and most picturesque. On both sides 
great granite cliffs rise hundreds of feet above the bed 
of the river, which, receiving the waters of the Stewart 
from the north, flows on toward Dawson City with great 
rapidity, sometimes as high as seven miles an hour. At 
just about the centre of the present mining district the 
Yukon changes its course to the northwest and continues 
in this direction for about 300 miles, or to a point near 
where the Porcupine River crosses the Arctic Circle, 
and empties into the parent stream. The width on the 



DIFFICULTY EXPERIENCED. a* 

Alaskan side of the boundary line averages about one 
mile, but as it approaches the Circle it spreads out 
among islands at the mouth of the Porcupine, till 
it is several miles from shore to shore. A good deal of 
difficulty is experienced in navigating the Yukon at this 
point on account of the shallowness of the water and 
the sandy formation of the bed, which causes the channel 
to shift from month to month and season to season. 

There is never a complete thaw of the soil which 
makes up the country through which the Yukon flows. 
In some places during the summer months the ground 
is soft to a depth of three or four feet, but in less 
favored places eighteen inches is a maximum. This 
layer of frozen soil extends down six or eight feet, and 
below that ice is rarely encountered. Various explana- 
tions of this phenomena have been advanced, but it is 
generally believed to be due to poor drainage and to the 
dense layer of moss which covers the entire country, 
and which acts as a blanket, preventing the intense heat 
of the midsummer sun from penetrating far below the 
surface, and also keeping in the cold. 



CHAPTER III. 

ROUTES TO THE ALASKAN INTERIOR. 

Dyea the ^ase of supply for -overland travel — The Chilkoot Pass and Lake Linde- 
man trail — The Stick Indian packers — Boat-building on the lakes — Shooting 
Miles Cafion, White Horse and Five-Finger or Rink Rapids — Stacking supplies 
by the way — The White and Chilkat Passes — Taku Inlet and Fort Macpherson 
routes — All the way to the Klondike by water — Proposed railways to pierce the 
gold fields. 

THE miner or tourist who proposes penetrating the 
Alaskan country to the placer diggings of the 
upper Yukon Basin has, broadly speaking, the choice 
of two routes. The one which has been most generally 
used, up to within a very recent time, is all the way by 
water. Leaving Puget Sound, or San Francisco Bay, 
the steamer sails out to the northwest across the Pacific 
Ocean to the Aleutian Islands, between which a channel 
leads into Bering Sea. Safe in these latter waters the 
steamer is put on a direct northerly course to Fort Get 
There, on St. Michael Island, which lies on the far western 
coast of Alaska, about sixty-five miles above the mouth 
of the Yukon River. There a transfer is made to a 
light-draft river boat, and in this the rest of the voyage 
to Circle City, Fort Cudahy, or Dawson is made. It takes 
between four and five weeks to make the trip in this way, 
under the most favorable circumstances, and owing to the 
fact that the Yukon is frozen hard and fast during eight 
months of the year, this route is only open from about 
June ist to the middle of September. 

44 



ROUTE TO DAWSON CITY. ,- 

The other route, and the one which is being taken by 
thousands of miners and others at the present time, is 
part of the way overland. Having arrived in Juneau by 
water from Seattle, the traveler goes up Lynn Canal to 
Dyea, or Taiya, as the Canadians call it. This town is 
at the head of Chilkoot Inlet, which runs parallel to and 
to the east of Chilcat Inlet, the latter also emptying into 
Lynn Canal. At Dyea the 1 overland journey begins, and 
just beyond its gates the rise to the Chilkoot Pass, 3,500 
feet above the sea, commences. Lake Lindeman, twenty- 
seven miles from Dyea, is the first piece of water met 
with after making the pass. This is the first of a series 
of lakes, which, with their connecting streams, must be 
traversed before the Thirty-Mile, Lewes, and finally 
Yukon Rivers are reached. This, in brief, is the route 
to Dawson City, over which the great bulk of Alaskan 
gold-field travel is now making its way. 

There are numerous conditions which must necessarily 
affect a decision as to choice of routes. Perhaps the main 
argument in favor of the overland route as opposed to 
the all-water one is the difference in time required for 
the two journeys. The distance from Seattle to Dawson 
City via Juneau and the lake country is 1,459 miles, 
while to take the ocean course requires that a circuit of 
4,200 miles must be made. The time actually required 
to cover the two routes is not governed altogether by 
the number of miles they measure. The season of the 
year, the size and make-up of the party, the state of the 
weather, the amount of baggage, and a dozen other 



4 6 



VESSELS USED. 



items, including luck, enter in to make the nicest calcu- 
lations go wide of the mark. 

Inasmuch as the Yukon route is out of the question 
until next summer's sun shall have thawed out its ice- 
bound channel, the greatest interest at the present time 
attaches to the overland route outlined above and the 
manifold variations to which it is subject. Both San 
Francisco and Seattle have been used as points of de- 
parture. The regular lines of vessels plying between 
these ports and Juneau, the metropolis of Alaska, have 
been largely supplemented. Craft of every description 
capable of living on the high seas have been drafted 
into the service. Barges, tugs, side-wheelers, and 
merchantmen, large and small, have been brought out 
of retirement and made to do valiant service in speeding 
the bands of gold-seekers on to the newly-found El 
Dorado. The excitement along the wharves where 
Alaskan-bound vessels have been moored has been 
intense. As a usual thing, long before the vessels were 
ready to heave anchor the docks have been so packed 
that it became almost impossible for a person to wedge 
his way through the mass of people so as to get a look 
at the steamship. 

These crowds were not drawn altogether by personal 
interest or friendship for those who were about to take 
the long, tiresome, and dangerous journey into the Yukon 
gold fields, although many that were present doubtless 
were influenced by those motives. The main actuating 
sentiment, however, was the feverish excitement which 



FIRST STAGES OF THE JOURNEY. 



47 



seems to prevail throughout all classes of the commu- 
nity in regard to the Klondike. 

To those who could not go there was some undefined 
satisfaction in looking upon the more lucky ones, who 
were more favored by fortune, and who might possibly 
be the future millionaires of the Coast. 

The first stages of the Klondiker's journey have been 
more or less familiar to the American tourist for years. 
Leaving the terraced slopes of Seattle in the back- 
ground, the good ship plies her way down Admiralty 
Inlet, past the city of Everett, and into Port Townsend, 
the United States port of entry for Puget Sound. Clear- 
ing from this port, the course lies directly across the 
Straits of Juan de Fuca northward to Victoria, B. C. 
This city, the capital of the province, occupies a com- 
manding site at the southern extremity of Vancouver 
Island. Thence the course runs to the eastward of 
Vancouver Island into the Gulf of Georgia, and threads 
its way through narrow channels and past islands, 
named and nameless, until, passing out of Chatham 
Sound, the vessel once more enters American waters 
and ties up for a short while at the Mary Island wharf 
for freight. The next stop made is at Fort Wrangel, 
which is reached on the morning of the fourth day out. 
Here the first real insight into Alaskan life is gained. 
The wharf swarms with Indians who expose for sale all 
manner of wares, while the crew busies itself with the 
adjustment of the cargo. The next stop is Juneau. 
This is a seaport and mining town, and before the gold 



4 8 



DOCKING FACILITIES. 



excitement began its population ranged from 2,000 to 
3,000 souls. It has schools and churches, three news- 
papers, electric light plant, water-works, two excellent 
wharves, mercantile establishments of generous propor- 
tions, good hotels, theatres, paved streets, and a well- 
organized fire department. 

The fare from Seattle to Juneau is $32, first-class, and 
$17 second-class. From the same port direct to Dyea 
a tariff of $40 is asked for first-class and $25 for sec- 
ond-class passengers. These tickets allow for 150 
pounds of baggage. Anything over this up to 1,200 
pounds will be carried at the rate of 10 cents per pound. 
Having been landed in Juneau, it is possible to take any 
one of a large number of small boats and continue the 
journey to Dyea, 96 miles further up the Lynn 
Canal. The fare on these boats is $10. The average 
time from landing to landing is about twenty-four hours. 
The docking facilities at the northern port are not of a 
very high order, and when the waters of Dyea Inlet,, 
which is a fresh-water branch of Chilkoot Inlet, are 
rough, considerable difficulty is experienced in trans- 
ferring passengers and freight from the boats to the 
shore. The present bustling town was originally an 
Indian village and trading post, and lies about a mile 
from the mouth of the inlet, in a beautiful level valley 
one mile wide. The traffic of the place has increased so 
rapidly during the past few months that the warehouse 
facilities are entirely inadequate to meet the demand, 
and by far the largest part of the freight destined for 



A DANGEROUS CROSSING. aq 

the Klondike country has to be stacked on the low- 
rolling beach preparatory to its being carted further up 
the trail toward Chilkoot Pass. 

Dyea Inlet is open for canoe navigation for six miles 
above the town, but as the packing into boats hardly 
pays for the short run, it is the general practice either to 
pack it on horses or bring small carts in use for the trip 
to Sheep Camp. About half this distance is through a 
comparatively level valley, the surface of which is com- 
posed of loose glacial rocks of all sizes, which afford a 
very uncertain footing for either man or beast. 

There is so little soil in the valley after the first 
mile or two above Dyea that the trees and vegeta- 
tion are of sparse and stunted growth. Along the 
sides of the mountains, however, the timber is heavy. 
The latter half of this pack-trail is shelved along the 
side of a canon several hundred feet above the 
stream until the last mile, when it zigzags down to 
the valley again. 

In winter it is possible to use pack horses to within a 
half-mile of the summit of the Pass. The distance from 
Dyea to Sheep Camp is twelve miles, and the rough 
trail crosses Dyea Inlet six or seven times in that dis- 
tance. The waters of this stream spring from two giant 
glaciers, one on either side of Chilkoot Pass. The 
fords constitute at times a dangerous feature of the trip, 
as men have been drowned crossing this furious icy tor- 
rent. Sheep Camp is a point just at the timber line 
where the streams from the two glaciers unite and form 

4 



cq AVERAGE LOAD TO CARRY. 

the Dyea. Here travelers often have to wait many days 
for fair weather to cross the range. 

It is at this point of the journey that the Indian packer 
is brought into service. For the actual crossing of the 
Pass he is absolutely indispensable. From long experi- 
ence in crossing and recros,sing this dangerous defile he 
knows its every nook and cranny, and can make the 
ascent and descent loaded down with provisions for his 
employer with considerably more ease than that same 
employer can without the embarrassments of a pack. 

The average load for the men is 120 pounds, but 
thirty or forty pounds more is not uncommon, and as 
an example which may be taken as about the limit, one 
of these men of burden has been known to carry an 
organ weighing 220 pounds over the Pass. Not as 
many squaws as men are at work, and their loads 
average a little lighter. Generally every member of 
the family — and this may be understood to include the 
dogs — carries a pack. Every Indian wants flour or 
bacon, because they constitute the most compact and 
easily adjusted load to carry ; but those who cannot get 
flour, having no special " pull " with the boss packer, have 
to be contented with camp-stoves, guns, shovels, rope, and 
other awkward things to carry. The dogs are loaded 
with from fifteen to fifty pounds, but it is necessary in 
some places for them to have assistance, and so their 
master puts down his pack and carries the dog and his 
load through some of the more difficult or narrow pas- 
sages amoncr the rocks or across streams. 



CACHEING SUPPLIES ALONG THE TRAIL. ej 

The Indian's personal belongings that he usually takes 
with him are a bag of dried fish and a blanket and pos- 
sibly a small bucket or a tomato can for a teapot. Dried 
salmon is both bread and meat to him and also to his 
dog, but the latter gets his share only at night. There 
is very little sunshine in the life of a Siwash dog. He 
is overworked, and it is only through a most unaccounta- 
ble oversight that he ever gets enough to eat. 

The rate which the Indians charge for packing is a 
variable quantity, largely governed by the demand for 
their services. For some years past the price has been 
comparatively stationary at 14 cents a pound, but dur- 
ing the last few months this has gone up to as high as 
$23 a hundred. And at the latter figure every packer 
in the district has been kept more than busy. Thousands 
of tons of provisions and freight are stalled at Dyea and 
Sheep Camp, owing to the scarcity of packers. Quite 
a few of the on-rushing miners have essayed the task 
of doing their own packing. But this involves return 
trips, and the w r ork involved is very arduous to one un- 
accustomed to it. 

A striking custom which is worthy of note is that of 
cacheing supplies along the trail. Flour, bacon, blankets, 
or whatever it may happen to be are left at any point to 
suit the convenience of the owner, A miner leaves a 
certain portion of the food upon which his life depends 
and goes on hundreds of miles in serene confidence that 
he will find it a^ain when he comes back in the fall. 
Sometimes a tent or fly of ducking is put up for a shel- 



e 2 DANGERS DESCRIBED. 

ter. If it is intended to leave the cache for several 
months, a platform on four posts is erected eight or ten 
feet above the ground to protect it from dogs and wild 
animals. Hungry Indians pass this food every day, and 
sometimes hungry white men, but it is rare indeed that 
a cache is maliciously violated. Of course there is a 
feeling of their dependence upon each other among these 
isolated men of the Yukon. If any one should come into 
the country without any supplies he would be received 
with poor grace, but should he come as the rest do, and 
by any misfortune lose his outfit, he is always welcome 
to a share anywhere he goes. 

The trail from Sheep Camp becomes steeper and 
steeper as the Pass is approached. Vast snow-fields 
have to be traversed, great boulders of granite have to 
be avoided by long circular cuts, and steep ice-covered 
declivities scaled with a sure foot. The trip to Lake 
Lindeman is described as possessing all the dangers arid 
excitement of mountain climbing among glaciers, snow, 
ice, and boulders. 

Two miles above Sheep Camp is a very interesting 
glacier which has no local name. Its depletion from 
crumbling and melting has been faster than the onward 
progress of the whole mass, and consequently it has 
receded to a point 2,000 feet higher than the creek. 
The front wall or face of it is 200 or 300 feet high, and 
has a width of a half mile. The glacier is almost unap- 
proachable. 

The great body of ice creaks and groans almost con- 




Street Scene in Dawson City. 




Interior of Miner's Cabin, Dawson City. 



ENTRANCE TO THE GOLD FIELDS. cc 

tinually. At times the disturbance increases to such an 
extent as to make one think, at a distance of two miles 
away, that the whole thing was tumbling down the 
mountain. The color of the superficial part of the 
glacier is pale blue, but the fissures, with their varying 
depths, run from blue to the deepest indigo color. From 
the foot of this, which has been called Sheep Camp Gla- 
cier, may be had a very comprehensive general view of 
Chilkoot Pass. For two miles the course extends 
straight away and upward through fields of perpetual 
snow and seems to terminate at dark stone walls. The 
summit of the pass is not visible, as the defile turns to 
the left and then abruptly to the right through gateways 
of granite. In many of the depressions around the 
higher points of this part of the coast range there are 
ice caps or glaciers, but they are rarely visible from the 
valleys immediately below. 

Chilkoot Pass is 3,500 feet above the level of the sea. 
The nearest settlement to the summit is Stone House, 
which is 2,400 feet below, and the real struggle lies be- 
tween these two points. The view from the top is not 
an extended one. Crater Lake, 500 feet below, can be 
seen. It is the source of that arm of the Yukon which 
affords the entrance to the gold fields via Chilkoot Pass. 
Beyond the little lake, less than a mile in extent, is a low 
line of hills, and in the distance rises a range of bare 
mountains. A dim trail leads down the hill and across 
the frozen lake, disappearing into the canon beyond. 

The abrupt passages near the summit are better 



56 



NO TIME FOR REST. 



accomplished by hauling supplies on sleds. After the 
summit is passed, if the journey is continued before the 
ice breaks up, it often happens that long distances may 
be made by means of sails raised on improvised masts 
on the sled. The sledge should be about seven feet four 
inches long, seven inches high, and sixteen inches wide, 
of strong but light timber, and the runners shod with 
either brass or steel, the former being preferable, be- 
cause the sled will glide over the snow more smoothly in 
intensely cold weather, while steel is inclined to grind 
and lug very much, as if it were being hauled over sand. 
When the weather is cold, if water is taken into the 
mouth and held a moment, then blown over the runner, 
a coating will immediately form, and if this process is 
repeated when it becomes a little worn off, one will be 
surprised to find how much smoother and easier the sled 
will draw. It is preferable to use the Eskimo mode of 
making sledges for Yukon traveling. They use no nails 
or bolts, binding the joints together with strong cords. 
There is much less danger of breaking, if made in this 
way, should the sled be overturned, as the joints will 
yield when thus tied together. 

From the summit to the head of Lake Lindeman the 
distance is nine miles. The descent for the first half- 
mile is steep, then a gradual slope to the lake. But 
there is little time for resting and none for dreaming, as 
the edge of the timber, where the camp must be made, 
is seven miles from the summit. Taking the camping 
outfit and sufficient provisions for four or five days, the 



A NEW FEATURI 



57 



sleigh is loaded, the rest of the outfit is packed up, or 
buried in the snow, shovels being stuck up to mark the 
spot. This precaution is necessary, for storms come 
suddenly and rage with fury along these mountain crests. 
The first half-mile or more is made in quick time, then 
over six or seven feet of snow the prospector drags his 
sleigh to where there is wood for his camp-fire. At 
times this is no easy task, especially if the weather be 
stormy, for the winds blow the new fallen snow about so 
as completely to cover the track made by the man but 
little ahead; at other times during fine weather and with 
a hard crust on the snow, it is only a pleasant run from 
the Pass down to the first camp in the Yukon Basin. In 
all except the most sheltered situations the tent is neces- 
sary for comfort, and the stove gives better satisfaction 
than the camp-fire, as it burns but little wood, is easier 
to cook over, and does not poison the eyes with smoke. 
It is a noticeable fact that there are fewer cases of snow 
blindness among those who use stoves than among those 
who crowd around a smoking camp-fire for cooking or 
for warmth. Comfort in making a trip of this kind will 
depend, in a great measure, upon the conveniences of 
camping, suitable clothing, and light, warm bedding. 
Yes, upon provisions, too, though often more depends 
upon the cook than upon what is in the larder. 

Once on Lake Lindeman a new feature of the jour- 
ney presents itself. Those who make the trip in sum- 
mer will find the ice out of the lakes, but if an early start 
were made they would be able to cross Lake Lindeman 



58 



CONSTRUCTION OF BOATS. 



and the other lakes of the chain by means of ice boats 
temporarily constructed. After the ist of May the 
lake course opens up and fairly good boats are a 
necessity. 

Until the last year it was necessary for every miner to 
carry a whip-saw with him with which to cut the timber 
for his craft, and whip-sawing was one of the picturesque, 
although not especially inviting, incidents of the trip. 
But a saw-mill has recently been constructed. The only 
timber used in the construction of boats on the lakes is a 
local kind of spruce. In the first place, the timber has 
to be discovered, and this is not the easiest thing in the 
world, because the timber around the lake is nearly all 
burned off, and there is none suitable for boat building. 
After the timber has been found comes the construction 
of a saw pit. To construct a saw pit it is necessary to 
find trees so arranged as to support cross-pieces, the 
stumps being cut at a proper distance from the ground 
so as to take the notched cross-pieces in. This requires 
four trees about equi-distant from one another, and the 
cross-pieces have to be fixed very firmly in place so as 
not to slip, as the log which is to be sawed is likely other- 
wise to be the cause of an accident. Often a good 
woodsman will be able to fell the tree which is to be 
sawed in such a way that it will fall into the pit, which 
saves the time and trouble of skidding the log up and 
rolling it in place after felling, which is frequently a very 
difficult task. From the slabs and boards thus roughly 
made the flat-boats are constructed, upon which the miners 



DANGEROUS WATER. rg 

traverse the chain of lakes extending north from Chilkoot 
Pass. 

From the head of Lake Lindeman, on both sides to 
Lake Bennett, the general character of the country is 
mountainous, with narrow benches skirting the shore. 
The distance across Lake Lindeman is nearly six miles, 
and from the foot of this lake about fifty yards of a 
portage is made of the one-mile river to Lake Bennett, 
because this stream is very crooked and full of rocks, 
making boat passage difficult and dangerous. 

Lake Bennett is twenty-six miles in length and is 
separated from Tagish Lake by a six-mile river. This 
lake is some fifteen miles long, and empties into 
Mud Lake through an outlet three miles long. Mud 
Lake is about ten miles in length, and at the foot of it 
open water is usually found in April. Open water will 
probably be passed before reaching this point in the 
rivers connecting the lakes, but firm ice at the sides 
affords good sledding ; but at the foot of Mud Lake a 
raft or boat must be built. Dry timber can be found 
along the shores with which to build a raft, which will 
take everything to the Lewes River Canon, about forty 
miles to the northwest. The river cuts through high 
banks of cement and sand, where millions of martins 
have their nests. The little birds have usually bur- 
rowed into a stratum of sand which lies just under the 
crest of the perpendicular bank. For mile after mile 
the coping of this canon is decorated with a frieze of 
martins' nests. Usually there is a single line of these 



6 PASSING THE RAPIDS. 

holes only a few inches apart, but sometimes it hap- 
pened that there are one or two lower deposits of the 
same quality of sand, and wherever the material oc- 
curs it is always utilized by the martins. For hundreds 
of miles down the river there js an almost unbroken 
throng of these little fellows, and they seemed to subsist 
wholly on mosquitoes. 

Miles Canon is the first piece of dangerous water 
encountered. Nineteen men have lost their lives during 
the last three years in the three miles of the Lewes 
River, which include this pass and the White Horse 
Rapids. The canon is about fifty yards wide with per- 
pendicular granite walls on either side. About midway 
there is an enlargement of the bed, which causes the 
formation of a very treacherous whirlpool. The natives 
believe that anything caught in this suction never re- 
appears. Its effect is to throw the water upon a central 
ride. To successfully pass these rapids one must keep 
his boat on top of this central crest. After emerging 
from the canon for about two miles the river runs 
through a flat country, and then it is crossed at right 
angles by a chain of hills similar to that at the canon, 
and again the river is hemmed in and is forced through 
a similar narrow and contracted outlet, White Horse 
Rapids, although in this case the water is confined for 
only a very short distance. At the rapids the hills do 
not approach very near to the river, but there is a 
margin, a plane of rock on either side, where one may 
approach and almost touch hands with those shooting 



A DROP TOO MUCH. £l 

the rapids in a boat. It is in the apparent advantage 
that those projecting shelves offer that the danger lies. 
In these three miles the river bed drops thirty-two feet. 

Two portages are made at White Horse, both of them 
short ones. The landing for the first is on the left or 
west bank. Sometimes a boat can be lowered through 
the first pitch with a rope, but the portage is safer. 
Below the portage the boat is paddled to the head of the 
last drop. This is " a drop too much " for any boatman 
to run. The channel closes in and the water goes down 
through with an angry roar. Fortunately, however, the 
portage is only about ioo feet long. 

The rest of the river run to Lake Lebarge is clear. 
Lake Lebarge itself is thirty-one miles long and five 
miles wide. It is usual to steer straight for the island in 
the middle, and under its shelter work around to the 
east or west shore, according to the direction of the 
wind. 

From the foot of Lake Lebarge to the mouth of the 
inflowing Hootalinqua or Teslintoo River, the current is 
rapid and there are many rocks, but it is not dangerous. 
Below the junction with the Hootalinqua the river is 
large and calm, and there is easy going for about 130 
miles to the Five-Finger Rapids. This is one of the two 
or three obstructions that interfere with the free navig-a- 
tion of the river. A ledge of rock lies directly across 
the stream with four or five openings in it, that afford a 
scanty outlet for the congested current. The largest 
passage and the one commonly used is the one at the 



5 2 SHOOTING THE RAPIDS. 

right shore. There is a considerable fall, but the water 
is not badly broken, the gateway being succeeded by 
several big waves, over which a boat glides with great 
rapidity, but with a smooth and even motion. Shooting 
this rapid is an exhilarating experience, but with careful 
management is not considered dangerous, as there is no 
record of any one being drowned here. It is well to 
have the boat fairly light before running the rapids. 

The run should then be made, landing on the right- 
hand side. Following the right-hand shore all the way 
for about five miles, Rink Rapids, one and a half miles 
in length (caused by a chain of rocks reaching nearly 
across the river) are reached. The right-hand side or 
east shore must be followed closely all the way. From 
this point the river is easy to navigate to its mouth. 
About fifty-five miles below the foot of Rink Rapids old 
Fort Selkirk is reached. It is situated near the conflu- 
ence of Pelly and Lewes Rivers. Here a trading post is 
run by an old-timer named Harper, and this is also a 
winter port for steamboats plying on the Yukon and its 
tributaries. The fort was pillaged and burned by coast 
Indians in 1852, and ruins of what were once chimneys 
only being seen. 

Continuing the journey, Stewart River is passed on 
the right ; then White River on the left, so named on 
account of its milky-looking water ; the next tributary 
on the same side is Sixty-Mile Creek, so called on 
account of its being considered sixty miles above Fort 
Reliance. Here the Yukon is over two miles in width. 



DISTANCES FROM DYEA. £-> 

The Klondike River and Dawson City are the next 
points of interest. 

James Ogilvie, surveyor for the Dominion Govern- 
ment, has made the following table of distances from 
Dyea or Ty-a, using the Canadian name : 

MILES. 

Head of canoe navigation, Ty-a River, 5.90 

Forks of Ty-a River, 8.38 

Summit of Chilkoofr-Pass, i4-7<3 

Landing at Lake Lindeman, 23.06 

Foot of Lake Lindeman, 2 3-49 

Head of Lake Bennett, 28.09 

Foot of Lake Bennett, ( . 53.85 

Foot of Cariboo Crossing, 5^-44 

Foot of Tagish Lake, 73.25 

Head of Marsh Lake 78.15 

Foot of Marsh Lake, 97.21 

Head of Miles Canon, 122.94 

Foot of Miles Canon, 123.56 

Head of White Horse Rapids, 124.95 

Foot of White Horse Rapids, 125.93 

Tahkeena River, *39-9 2 

Head of Lake Lebarge, I 53-°7 

Foot of Lake Lebarge, 184.22 

Teslintoo River, 215.88 

Big Salmon River, 249.33 

Little Salmon River, 285.54 

Five-Finger Rapids, • 344-83 

Pelly River, 4°3-29 

White River, 499- 11 

Stewart River, . 508.91 

Sixty-Mile Creek, 53°-4l 

Dawson, 575-7° 

Of all the overland routes to the Yukon gold fields 
the one via the Chilkoot Pass has been the most used by 
the miners. This is the oldest of the many routes, and 



6 4 



A NEW TRAIL. 



having been explored frequently by official expeditions 
of one kind and another the objections to it are pretty 
well understood, and many of its hardest places have 
been smoothed over. All along this route enterprising 
individuals have made improvements for the benefit of 
those who use it. The boarding-house at Sheep Camp, 
where meals are served at 50 cents apiece, and the saw- 
mill on Lake Lindeman, where boards are sold at $10 
a thousand feet attest this fact. 

The trail leading up over White Pass it is believed 
will eventually very largely supersede the Chilkoot route. 
By taking this road the steep declivity just to the south 
of the Chilkoot Pass will be avoided. For even an 
Indian this is a hard bit of going, and especially when 
loaded down with from one to two hundred pounds of 
provisions. At the present time the argonauts at Dyea 
seeking an entrance to the orold fields are at loQ-oer- 
heads as to the relative merits of these two trails. 
Skaguay, the starting point for the White Pass, is five 
miles distant from Dyea, on the Skaguay River. The 
trail runs parallel with Chilkoot Pass, and at no great 
distance from it. 

Though the land carriage is somewhat longer by this, 
it appears to present less difficulty for the construction 
of a practical trail or road. The distance from the coast 
to the summit is seventeen miles. Five miles of this are 
level bottom land thickly timbered. The next nine miles 
are in a narrow canon-like valley, where heavy work is 
encountered in constructing the trail. The remaining 



ROUTES COMPARED. 



65 



distance of three miles to the summit is comparatively 
easy. The summit has an altitude of 2,600 feet. Be- 
yond the summit a wide valley is entered, and its descent 
to the first lake is not more than a hundred feet. The 
mountains rapidly decrease in height and abruptness 
after the summit is passed, and the valley divides, one 
branch leading to the head of Windy Arm of Tagish 
Lake ; the other, down which the water drains, going to 
Taku arm of the same lake. 

This route being over level country as compared 
with that over Chilkoot Pass, is much better adapted 
to the use of pack-horses and trains. It has been re- 
ported that parties with horses have been able to get all 
the way through to Lake Bennett. Firmly convinced 
that it will eventually prove the most feasible, about nine 
hundred miners are now working on this trail, filling in 
its bogs, cutting away boulders where they obstruct the 
path, and putting things in shape for heavy travel. 
When finished, two days is the estimated time for the 
trip over this route. 

A couple of Englishmen have erected wharfs at Ska- 
guay, for the use of which they charge $2.50 a ton. 
Rather than pay this many of the miners take their 
freight from the steamers on rudely-constructed rafts 
and stack it on the beach. It has been reported that 
horses and cattle are thrown overboard and made to 
swim ashore. 

The Canadians put great faith in the trail named after 
the Stickine River. A grant has just been made by the 
5 



55 A PACK TRAIN ESTABLISHED. 

Dominion Government to J. C. Galbreath to cut through i 
a distance of 1 50 miles from the headwaters of Telegraph i 
Creek to Lake Teslin to make the route feasible. Enter- 
ing the Stickine River just above Fort Wrangel, this 
route goes up that river 175 miles to Telegraph Creek, 
and then almost due north along Telegraph Creek to j 
the end of canoe navigation. 

From this point to Lake Teslin, a distance of 150 
miles, the trail has been cut and a pack train established. 
The steamer " Alaska " is now carrying passengers to 
Telegraph Creek. The country over which the trail 
runs is reported to be a comparatively level plateau or 
tableland, and very few of the hardships to be encountered 
by miners traveling the Juneau route are to be met with. 
From Lake Teslin everything is described by members 
of Galbreath's party as being smooth and open-water 
traveling, without a break clear down through the outlet 
of the lake, Teslintoo or Hootalinqua River, into the 
Lewes and Yukon Rivers. 

A route from the head of Taku Inlet was explored by 
the Western Union Telegraph Survey thirty years ago ; 
and emissaries of the fur traders and occasional pros- 
pectors kept open the knowledge of the Indian trail. 
The first modern account of it, however, was given by 
the late Lieutenant Schwatka, U. S. A., who re-explored 
the route in 1891 during his third and last trip to Alaska. 
With him went Dr. C. Willard Hayes of the U. S. 
Geological Survey, two photographers, and a large party 
of helpers. 



EXPERIENCES DESCRIBED. 



67 



Leaving Juneau in the beginning of May of that year 
accompanied by eighteen natives, Schwatka went through 
Taku and traveled up the Taku River with his party in 
canoes until they reached the headwaters of that stream. 
Several manuscripts in which Lieutenant Schwatka de- 
scribes his experiences are extant. In one of these he 
says: 

"We reached the headwaters of the Taku fifteen days 
after we had started out from Juneau, taking plenty 
of time over our trip. We went up as far along the 
headwater stream as we could get, and only stopped 
when our frail canoes grounded on the soft gravel and 
could go no farther. Although I had left civilization 
with the distinct belief in the reports brought in to me 
by Indians concerning the existence of a trail over table- 
lands between the Taku and Lake Teslin, it was with a 
feeling of great relief that I discovered these reports to 
be correct. Each of our Indians carried 200 pounds, 
and we all started out with our feet wrapped in rags of 
moose and caribou skins. We had many strange expe- 
riences on this trip, coming across most peculiar changes 
in the contour of the country. Led by three Indians 
who had been with me on my trip in 1888 when I left 
Juneau for Lake Lindeman, we soon struck a trail, and 
for two days going was very light. Not knowing what 
we would have to encounter before we got to the end of 
our journey, I was content to made ten miles per day. 

" On the third day out, however, we found ourselves 
crossing such dangerous country that it was impossible 



58 DANGERS ENCOUNTERED. 

to travel faster than five miles in twelve hours of travel- 
ing. The mosquitoes were terrible, and bit our ears, 
eyes, and all exposed parts so much that we had to stop 
for hours at a time to try to get relief from their bites. 
The Indians, with their heavy loads, suffered consider- 
ably in the latter part of the trip, their feet being badly 
swollen and galled. On the morning of the fifteenth 
day out from Taku we reached a mountain pass, about 
5,000 feet high, and on turning down into a sharp de- 
clivity came in sight of Lake Tes'l Heen, as the Indians 
call it. It looked like a long, narrow strip of blue as far 
as we could see. That night we reached the water, 
unslung our portable canoes, and were once more afloat. 
The first use we made of our new position was to cap- 
ture ptarmigan and fish, a welcome relief from the 
carried canned provisions we had lived on so long." 

A second letter of Schwatka's, written to a friend in 
Juneau, and dispatched by Indians, over the tedious 
route he had already compassed, contained the fol- 
lowing : 

"When Naniwak starts with this letter, we will be 
away up the Hootalinqua River in our canoes. I will 
probably go on to the Thirty-Mile, come down into Lake 
Labarge, and then on through the Fifty-Mile River and 
Mud Lake into Bennett, where I will continue through 
Lindeman, and join you in civilization once more 
down my old stamping ground through the Chilkoot. 
The result of my exploration, so far, I am confident, will 
establish for the people of Juneau a route into the 



RESULT OF EXPLORATION. 



6 9 



Yukon country far superior to any yet discovered, far 
shorter and far more easy of action. As far as that old 
Stickine River route that so many people run wild over 
is concerned, I think that our trail from the headwaters 
of the Taku knocks it out of consideration completely. 
To show the difference in the time taken from the head- 
waters to Lake Taku by men who know this newly- 
discovered trail, and by men that don't, you ought to 
know that last year a party of miners took eighty days 
to make it, but they had no trail to guide them, and 
simply trusted to luck. We had the bulge on the trail, 
however, and did it in exactly fifteen days. They can 
send their exploration parties out wherever they want 
to, but I know enough about Alaska to be certain that 
the Taku route is the only way that people of Juneau 
will want to get to the Yukon country, when once they 
understand its immense advantages. I reckon that it 
beats the Stickine route forty days, besides being better 
traveling, and you must consider that even the old 
Stickine route beats my first run up through Lake 
Bennett just as much. The new Indian pass can easily 
be made practicable for pack-trains or wagon road, and, 
if necessary, can be made to tap the Canadian Pacific 
Railway as well as the Yukon River country. The mos- 
quitoes still stay with us, and are committing terrible 
ravages on every one of our party. Nothing seems to 
keep them away." 

After reaching Lake Teslin, it will be noticed that 
Schwatka's route covers the same ground as the Stickine 



7o 



SCHWATKA'S TRAIL. 



trail, the great difference between the two being - in the 
manner in which they reach the foot of the lake. There 
seems to be a great deal of discrepancy between the 
accounts given of the nature of the tablelands lying 
south of the lake by Mills and Schwatka. If what Mills 
says is correct, then the topographical features of the 
country must change in an alarming manner between 
very short points of distance, although even his roseate 
announcement about the conditions discovered by Call- 
breath's party does not obliterate the fact that their route 
is considerably longer than Schwatka's. 

After leaving Lake Teslin, no serious obstacle is en- 
countered, although the water toward its mouth is swift. 
From there the canoes run down the Lewes River, join- 
ing the regular line of overland travel. 

Schwatka returned from the Hootalinqua up through 
Lake Bennett, and reached Juneau safely in the latter 
part of 1 89 1, but stayed there only two days, leaving 
for the south by steamer before he had formulated any 
report of the new trail to Lake Teslin. He never re- 
turned to Alaska, dying at Portland, Ore., in Novem- 
ber, 1892. There is no doubt that several miners 
who went into the Taku River country last year followed 
over this path to reach Lake Teslin, guided in all proba- 
bility by members of the same Indian tribe as had piloted 
Schwatka through. 

A route to Dawson City, which was used some during 
the last summer, leads up over the Chilcat Pass, at the 
head of Chilcat Inlet, and thence follows what has been 



DALTON'S TRAIL. 



73 



dubbed Dalton's trail entirely overland to the Yukon 
River, just below old Fort Selkirk. It is particularly 
adapted for driving cattle into the interior. 

Quite a number of miners started for the Klondike 
this summer over the Hudson Bay trunk line. This line 
of traffic has been in use for a greater part of the way 
for over one hundred years. 

Leaving St. Paul at nine o'clock in the morning, by 
the Canadian Pacific Railway, the international bound- 
ary at Portal will be crossed at four o'clock the next 
morning. The following morning Calgary is reached, 
where the branch line of the Canadian Pacific north- 
ward is reached. After traveling to Edmonton, a point 
200 miles from Calgary and 1,772 miles from Chicago, 
the rail portion of the journey ends. The railroad fare 
from Chicago is $53.65. 

A stage ride of 96 miles will bring one to Athabasca 
Landing. Here is to be found a continuous waterway 
for canoe travel to Fort Macpherson, near the mouth of 
the Mackenzie River, where Peel River enters from the 
south. From Edmonton to Fort Macpherson is about 
1,816 miles. 

So far as navigation is concerned it would be feasible 
to float down these rivers and lakes to Fort Macpherson 
or to the Arctic Ocean. The Hudson Bay Company 
have long had a service of steamboats the whole distance 
during the short summer, and will take any quantity of 
passengers or freight, for which they have room. Indian 
canoe routes and trails lead overland from Fort Macpher- 



74 



FEASIBLE ROUTES. 



son to another post on Bell River, and up that stream 
and over a pass to the head-waters of Pocupine. This 
may be descended to Fort Yukon, or one may portage 
over rough mountains to the head of the Tatonduc River 
and descend almost straight to Forty-Mile. 

It is quite likely that some persons will take this route 
from Canada to the Yukon gold fields next year ; but at 
present it is too long, hazardous, and unknown to be 
recommended to any one. 

The foregoing include all the overland routes which 
are from present information at all feasible. 

The sea route from either Seattle or San Francisco is 
only open for three months of the year at the most. It 
is by far the most attractive route from a standpoint of 
comfort. From Seattle to St. Michael is 2,500 miles, and 
from St. Michael to Dawson is 2,200 more. Using San 
Francisco as the port of departure, the trip is lengthened 
by 400 miles. The cost of passage from Seattle to St. 
Michael, provisions included, is $165. 

The first boat up the Yukon in the spring reaches 
Circle City toward the end of June, and the last one 
leaves there early in September on the return trip to 
St. Michael's Island. Between the coming of these 
boats there is no communication with the outside world 
except by dog sledges over the mountains. The trip of 
1,300 miles to St. Michael's Island can be made by dog 
sledge over the frozen river, but at that point the voy- 
ager would be but little better off than he was at Circle 
City or Klondike, as the ocean steamers only run in 



VARIOUS ROUTES. j* 

connection with the Yukon River boats. The last 
steamer for this season left Seattle for St. Michael's 
Island early in August, and, if there is no unforeseen 
delay, its passengers will be landed in Dawson City, the 
tented metropolis of the gold fields, about Septem- 
ber I St. 

A number of schemes for penetrating the territory 
traversed by the Upper Yukon by railroads have been 
under way for some time, and the recent heavy travel 
in that direction has caused work on them to be pushed 
in earnest. What is generally considered the most 
feasible of these routes calls for a mixed rail-and-water 
route from Sault Ste. Marie, on Lake Superior, to the 
Yukon River. In an air line the distance from the " Soo " 
to Dawson City is about 2,100 miles, but an air line is 
out of the question, owing to the rugged country lying 
between. The projected route, which is proposed in 
sober earnest by men of prominence and means, who 
have been figuring upon the matter for the last year, 
calls for the building of about 625 miles of railway 
and the utilizing of practically all of the great navigable 
streams of the western half of British Columbia, as well 
as of Hudson's Bay. 

The first and longest stretch of railway would be be- 
tween Sault Ste. Marie and Hudson's Bay, touching at 
the mouth of the Moose River, a distance of about 400 
miles. By building the first section from Missanabie, on 
the Canadian Pacific Railway, Hudson's Bay would be 
reached by 250 miles of rail. But the intention is to 
build the line to the Sault ultimately, independent of the 



7 6 



NAVIGATION. 



Canadian Pacific, although that road may be utilized at 
first from Missanabie to Lake Superior. From the end 
of the first rail line, at the mouth of the Moose River, 
there is a stretch of 1,300 miles of salt water, on the 
bay and on Chesterfield Inlet, to the head of navigable 
water. The season of navigation on Hudson's Bay 
probably would be nearly as long as on Lake Superior, 
the salt water counterbalancing the more severe 
climate. 

From Chesterfield Inlet, 175 miles will reach Great 
Slave Lake, an enormous fresh-water sea, second only 
to the great lakes of this country in size. The outlet of 
Great Slave Lake is the Mackenzie River, one of the 
largest streams on the continent, and freely navigable 
without rapids or falls to the Arctic Ocean, a distance 
of 1,400 miles. The delta of the Mackenzie is only fifty 
miles from the Porcupine River, one of the principal 
affluents of the Yukon, which is navigable by steamers 
of large draft from the point where it is proposed to 
reach it with the fifty-mile strip of rail from the Mac- 
kenzie. The distance from the point where the rails 
would connect the Mackenzie and Porcupine Rivers to 
the mouth of the Porcupine at its junction with the 
Yukon is about 400 miles, the Porcupine emptying into 
the Yukon a short distance from Circle City. Dawson 
City, the main settlement of the Klondike region, is 
about 300 miles up the Yukon. 

The total distance of the proposed route from Sault 
Ste. Marie, the outlet of Lake Superior, to Dawson City 
would be about 4,025 miles, of which there would be ap- 



DISTANCE COMPARED. 7 « 

proximately 625 miles of rail and 3,400 miles of water 
transportation. This distance compares most favorably 
with the shortest route at present known from the great 
lakes, which is overland to Seattle or Vancouver, thence 
by water to Juneau, over the mountains to Lake Ben- 
nett and thence down the Yukon River on a raft or boat. 

The three different sections of railroad would not be 
especially difficult to build, with the exception of the 
drawbacks suffered from short seasons. It would re- 
quire very much less to the mile to build than the Cana- 
dian Pacific has cost, partly because of the cheaper 
methods of construction, but mainly because the to- 
pography of the country through which the rails are to 
be laid presents fewer difficulties to the road-builder. 
The 250-mile section from Missanabie to St. James Bay, 
the lower part of Hudson's Bay, would lie along the 
valley of the Moose River for the entire distance of 250 
miles, and having rail connection at its southern end, it 
could be built as cheaply as any other of the roads 
of northern Ontario. The hills on the route of the 
175-mile section, between Chesterfield Inlet and Great 
Slave Lake are of only moderate elevation. The fifty- 
mile strip to connect the Mackenzie and Porcupine 
Rivers would pass through an almost level country, the 
extreme northern spurs of the Rocky Mountains fading 
away 100 miles to the southward. 

The intense cold of Alaska and of Arctic and sub- 
arctic British North America would not prove the bar to 
the building of railways and permanent occupation and 
development of the country which might be thought by 



7& 



TEMPERATURE. 



residents of more favored climes. The temperature at 
Fort William, the principal Lake Superior port of the 
Canadian Pacific, and at the northern angle of the lake, 
often exceeds 50 degrees below zero, and it has reached 
60, while eighteen months ago, in Minnesota, a short 
distance west of Duluth, the temperature dropped to 67 
below zero. The coldest weather reported from Alaska 
or the Northwest Territory is but 72. 

It is also proposed to run a railroad from Telegraph 
Creek at the head of the Stickine River, on the coast of 
British Columbia, to Lake Teslin. It is claimed that the 
building of this road would be comparatively easy, and 
much the shortest rail route to the navigable inland 
waters. It runs through a mineral country which 
promises great future development of quartz mining. 
The Treadwell mine on Douglass Island is near its 
western end, and in the east it taps the western slope of 
the Cassiars. Like conditions will doubtless be found 
to prevail through almost its entire length, and the 
development of quartz ledges along its route will give 
it regular and continuous traffic in addition to supplying 
the through trade on the Yukon, all of whose gold- 
bearing tributaries are in easy reach. 

To the Yukon Mining, Trading & Transportation 
Company, proposing this road, the Parliament of British 
Columbia at its last session gave full power to build its 
line and a land grant of 750,000 acres, which grants 
were confirmed by the Dominion Parliament at Ottawa 
last May, with additional privileges and concessions. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE OUTFIT OF AN ARGONAUT. 

The qualifications of a successful miner — One temptation of the gold-digger — Pro- 
visions for the journey to Dawson City — Camping outfit and cooking utensils — 
The tool chest of a Lake Lindeman boat-builder — What to wear in low temper- 
atures — Supplies for a year's stay — Turnips by the pound — The Dawson City 
storekeeper's scale of prices — Reasons for lower prices — The custom houses at 
Dyea and Lake Bennett — A few pointers for prospective Alaskans. 

TO be well prepared is half the battle won. This is 
the substance of an old adage which is peculiarly 
adapted to the case of one starting out to the Alaskan 
gold fields in the search of wealth, or even of a simple 
livelihood. The conditions of life in any newly-discov- 
ered mining country are such as to place a man on his 
mettle, to bring out everything that is in him, to make 
him resourceful and self-reliant. But these things being 
equal, it is the one who has just the right equipment 
who will have the advantage when the going is hard 
and to all appearances pretty even. 

To be sober, strong, and healthy is the first requisite 
for any one who wants to battle successfully for a year 
or two in the frozen lands of the far North. A physique 
hardy enough to withstand the most rigorous climate is 
an absolute necessity. With a temperature varying 
from almost one hundred degrees above zero in mid- 
summer to fifty, sixty, and even seventy below that point 
in winter, with weeks of foggy, damp, thawing weather, 

79 



g Q GOOD JUDGMENT REQUISITE. 

and with winds that rage at times with the violence of 
hurricanes, the man with a weak constitution is bound 
to suffer untold hardship. No one with weak lungs or 
subject to rheumatism ought to think of wintering along 
the Yukon. In short, making the venture means, ac- 
cording to one who has tried it, "packing provisions 
over pathless mountains, towing a heavy boat against a 
five to an eight-mile current, over battered boulders, 
digging in the bottomless frost, sleeping where night 
overtakes, fighting gnats and mosquitoes by the mil- 
lions, shooting seething canons and rapids and enduring 
for seven long months a relentless cold which never rises 
above zero and frequently falls to eighty degrees below." 

If a man is able to meet these conditions he is almost 
sure of making a good living and takes chances with 
the rest in making a fortune. It is not alone to the 
physical side of the question that one should look. 
Temperament counts for a great deal in the miner's life. 
Men should be of cheerful, hopeful dispositions and will- 
ing workers. Those of sullen, morose natures, although 
they may be good workers, are very apt, as soon as the 
novelty of the country wears off, to become dissatisfied, 
pessimistic, and melancholy. 

Good judgment is also a prime requisite. Once in 
the atmosphere of the gold country one hears constantly 
of newly-found placers which are reported to be vastly 
richer than anything yet discovered. With each such 
report scores of miners leave diggings which are vastly 
superior to those which they propose to seek six, twenty, 



WILD STORIES. g x 

or one hundred miles away. If one is constantly on the 
jump from claim to claim there is evidently no time left 
for the only work that counts, separating the gold from 
its containing earths. One of the returning miners on 
the " Excelsior " said that the hardest work he had to do 
in the Klondike region was to keep pegging away at his 
claim, which, by the way, was a very good one, and give 
a deaf ear to the stories of fabulous wealth being- found 
just beyond the nearest range of mountains. These 
stories are often put in circulation by people who are 
anxious to see certain claims forsaken by their owners 
that they themselves may step in and become the 
owners. 

As to the outfit, both that part of it which bears on the 
journey proper and those things which are to form the 
basis of existence for the stay in the gold country, the 
greatest care must be exercised. To meet with the 
largest measure of success and in order to be in a po- 
sition to move and work rapidly, which amounts to the 
same thing, one must strike a happy medium between 
taking too much and leaving behind some of the numer- 
ous essentials. Joseph Ladue, who has spent years in 
this country and who is given credit for having founded 
Dawson City, says in regard to this : 

" It is a great mistake to take anything except what 
is necessary. The trip is a long, arduous one, and a 
man should not add one pound of baggage to his outfit 
that can be dispensed with. I have known men who 
loaded themselves up with rifles, revolvers, and shot- 



82 



WINTER CLOTHING. 



guns. Thisis entirely unnecessary. Revolvers will get 
you into trouble, and there is no use of taking them with 
you, as large game of any character is rarely found on 
the trip. I have prospected through this region for 
some years and have only seen one moose. You will 
not see any large game whatever on your trip from 
Juneau to Dawson City, therefore do not take any fire- 
arms along." 

In addition to the great inconvenience of carrying a 
great deal of luggage it is a matter of continual expense. 
It is said that the Indians are disposed to gauge a man's 
ability to pay by the amount of baggage he takes with 
him, and scale their prices accordingly. At 15, 20, or 25 
cents a pound for packing over the Chilkoot Pass it 
makes considerable difference whether a man has with 
him a hundred weight or half a ton of freight. Then 
there are steamer charges, wharfage fees, and often 
portage expenses to be defrayed, to say nothing of cus- 
toms duties. One hundred and fifty pounds of baggage 
is all that is allowed for a passenger on the Yukon 
River boats and those sailing from Seattle and San Fran- 
cisco for Alaskan ports. 

The general practice as to clothing for miners who re- 
main over winter is to adopt the dress of the natives. 
Water boots are made of seal or walrus skins ; dry 
weather, or winter boots, from various skins, fur 
trimmed. Trousers are made of Siberian fawn and 
marmot skins, while the upper garment, combined with 
a hood, called tarka, is made of marmot trimmed with 



FROVISIONS. 



83 



long fur, which helps to protect the face of the person 
wearing it. Flannels can be worn under these, and not 
be any heavier than clothing worn in a country with zero 
weather. For bedding, woolen blankets are used, com- 
bined with fur robes. If the former are used it is well 
to be provided with two pairs. 

The best robes are of wolf skin, but they cost $100 
apiece. There are cheaper ones made of bear, mink, 
and fox skins. A good, stout pair of rubber boots is 
also essential. The boots made by the natives sell from 
$2 to $5 a pair. 

As to provisions, it is impossible to lay down any defi- 
nite scheme. The first consideration is to have enough 
to last for the journey from the coast to the interior. 
Figuring on thirty days as the shortest time possible in 
which this trip can be made, the supply ought to be about 
as follows : Twenty pounds of flour, twelve pounds of 
bacon, twelve pounds of beans, four pounds of butter, 
five pounds of vegetables, five pounds of dried fruits, 
four cans of condensed milk, five pounds of sugar, one 
pound of tea, three pounds of coffee, one and one-half 
pounds of salt, five pounds of corn-meal, a small portion 
of pepper and mustard, and baking-powder. 

To one accustomed to camp life there are many things 
in the way of utensils and apparatus generally that can 
be dispensed with which, to the man new to such modes 
of living, are, or seem to be, absolutely necessary. A 
pretty complete outfit includes matches, cooking utensils 
and dishes, frying pan, water kettle, duck tent, rubber 



g 4 GNATS AND MOSQUITOES. 

blanket, bean pot, drinking-cup, two plates, tea-pot, 
knife and fork, large cooking pan, small cooking pan. A 
fine addition to the culinary department will be a good 
assortment of fish-hooks, gill nets, and fishing tackle. 
These ought to be graded through the medium and small 
sizes. Alaskan fish are for the most part gamey. 

Ample provision must be made for the boat, raft, and 
sled building, which is a feature of every journey over- 
land. To this end these items will be found not only 
useful but absolutely necessary: One jack-plane, one 
whip-saw, one cross-cut saw, one rip-saw, one axe, one 
hatchet, one hunting-knife, one two-foot rule, six pounds 
of assorted nails, three pounds of oakum, five pounds of 
pitch, 1 50 feet of rope. 

Inasmuch as gnats and mosquitoes abound all over 
the Alaskan interior, some means of protection from their 
assaults must be provided. Mosquito netting is recom- 
mended, and it is well to buy that with the smallest mesh 
obtainable. Snow spectacles and a simple medicine chest 
ought to find a place in every outfit. One man ought 
never to try the trip alone, and where four or five pool 
their interests one tent, one stove, and one set of tools 
will suffice for the party. 

After the supplies for the trip to the mines have been 
decided upon, the more extensive task of laying in pro- 
visions for the stay can be taken up. A good, safe rule 
is to estimate on remaining on the Yukon a full year. 
If one decides later to prolong the time it will be easier 
to send back or go back to Juneau for further supplies 



A YEAR'S NECESSITIES. 



85 



than to be burdened with them during the first months 
of life in camp, and more especially when making the 
first trip over the mountains. 

A miner who, after spending long years in the Col- 
orado camp, went to Alaska to tempt fortune on the 
Klondike, gives the following list his indorsement as 
containing everything necessary for one man for one 
year: Flour, 400 lbs. ; corn-meal, 2-ios, 20 lbs.; rolled 
oats, 4-9S, 36 lbs.; rice, 25 lbs. ; beans, 100 lbs. ; sugar, 
75 lbs.; dried fruits (apples, peaches, apricots), 75 lbs.; 
yeast cakes (6 in pkg.), 6 pkgs. ; candles, 40; dry salt 
pork, 25 lbs. ; evap. potatoes, 25 lbs. ; evap. onions, 5 
lbs. ; butter ; bacon, 1 50 lbs. ; dried beef, 30 lbs. ; ex- 
tract of beef (4 oz.), x / 2 doz. ; baking-powder, 10 lbs.; 
soda, 3 lbs. ; salt, 20 lbs. ; pepper, 1 lb. ; mustard, */£ lb. ; 
ginger; coffee, 25 lbs.; tea, 10 lbs. ; condensed milk, 2 
doz.; soap (laundry), 5 lbs.; soap (toilet), 5 cakes; 
matches, can of 60 pkgs. ; tobacco ; compressed soup, 
3 doz. ; compressed soup vegetables, 10 lbs.; Jamaica 
ginger (4 oz.), 2 bottles ; stove, 1 ; gold pan, 1 ; granite 
buckets, 2 ; knives and forks, 1 each ; spoons, 3 tea and 
3 table ; Quaker bread-pan, 1 ; cups, 2 ; plates (tin), 3 ; 
whetstone, 1 ; coffee-pot, 1 ; picks and handles, 1 ; sleds ; 
hatchet, 1 ; saws (whip), 1 ; saws (hand), 1 ; shovel, 1 ; 
nails, 20 lbs. ; files (assorted), *^ doz.; axe and handle, 
1 ; draw knife, 1 ; plane, 1 ; brace and bitt, 1 ; chisels 
(assorted), 3 ; butcher knife, 1 ; compass, 1 ; revolver, 
1 ; evap. vinegar, 1 qt. ; rope (j4 inch), 100 ft.; medi- 
cine case; pitch; oakum; fry pan, 1. 



gg SCALE OF PRICES. 

As a general rule miners find it to best advantage to 
buy the larger part of their outfits in Juneau rather 
than in the United States or on the Yukon. Buying in 
the United States one has to pay the freight to Juneau 
or Skaguay, and perhaps wharfage at those points. The 
prices prevailing in Juneau for the necessary commodi- 
ties are not prohibitory at all. But the same cannot be 
said of the tariff in vogue among the storekeepers of 
Dawson City, as witness the following scale of prices: 
Flour, per ioo lbs., $12 ; moose ham, per lb., $1 ; cari- 
bou meat, per lb., 65 cts. ; beans, per lb., 10 cts. ; rice, 
per lb., 25 cts. ; sugar, per lb., 25 cts. ; bacon, per lb., 40 
cts. ; butter, per roll, $1.50; eggs, per doz., $1.50; better 
eggs, per doz., $2 ; salmon, each, $1 to $1.50 ; potatoes, 
per lb., 25 cts. ; turnips, per lb., 15 cts. ; tea, per lb., $1 ; 
coffee, per lb., 50 cts. ; dried fruits, per lb., 35 cts. ; 
canned fruits, 50 cts.; canned meats, 75 cts.; lemons, 
each, 20 cts. ; oranges, each, 50 cts. ; tobacco, per lb., 
$1.50; liquors, per drink, 50 cts. ; shovels, $2.50; picks, 
$5 ; coal oil, per gallon, $1 ; overalls, $1.50; underwear, 
per suit, $5 to $7.50; shoes, $5 ; rubber boots, $10 to 
#15 ; lumber, per 1,000 feet, $150. 

In some of the camps further back from the river even 
higher prices prevail. Some idea of them can be gained 
from the following: — Bacon, per lb., 75 cts.; coffee, per 
lb.,$i ; sugar, per lb., 50 cts. ; eggs, per doz., $2 ; con- 
densed milk, per can, $1 ; picks, each, $15; shovels, 
each, $15. 

Of course, a few months will make a great difference 



CLOTHING OUTFIT. 



87 



in these matters. Already the steamboat companies 
doing business on the Yukon are making plans to send 
thousands of tons of food supplies and clothing to the 
gold fields when the ice breaks up next summer. Their 
efforts will be largely supplemented by private enter- 
prises of one kind and another, so that it is confidently 
expected that the exorbitant rates which now obtain on 
the Klondike will be materially reduced next summer. 

A good clothing outfit for a year's stay is this :— 
Two pairs heaviest wool socks, one pair Canadian lara- 
gans or shoe packs, one pair German socks, two pairs 
heaviest woolen blankets, one oil blanket or canvas, one 
mackinaw suit, two heavy flannel shirts, two pairs heavy 
overalls, two suits heavy woolen underwear, one pair 
rubber boots (crack proof preferable), one pair snow- 
shoes, heavy cap, fleece-lined mittens. 

To the prosperous mechanic or business man this list 
may look a little scant as to some of its numbers. For the 
enlightenment of those who would be thus critical be it 
said that it is the custom among miners to resort to fre- 
quent washings and mendings rather than to carry along 
a great variety and large number of the various articles 
of apparel. 

The situation in Alaska as regards the collection of 
customs duties is, to say the least, a little complicated 
at the present moment. Acting under orders from 
Secretary Gage, the newly-appointed collector for the 
territory, Mr. Ivey, of Oregon, has established a sub- 
port of entry at Dyea. Of course, after the machinery 



38 TREATY PROVISIONS. 

of this new custom house has become sufficiently clock- 
like in its workings, goods from the United States des- 
tined for the Klondike, will be inspected, tagged, and sent 
in bond over the passes to the Canadian custom house 
to be established on Lake Bennett in just the same way 
as it is done with baggage belonging to passengers on 
Michigan Central trains going from Buffalo to Chicago. 
Twelve Canadian customs officials have started for the 
interior where they will set up an office on the portage 
between Lakes Bennett and Tagish, a point by which all 
Yukon or Klondike travelers must pass if they start 
from Dyea or Skaguay. The rate of duty will average 
about $30 on the average outfit of a Yukoner. The 
officers are well armed, and will have the assistance of 
the mounted police to enforce the collection of duties. 
Further down the river will be stationed guards to in- 
tercept any one who might elude the vigilance of the 
officers. 

American miners who have investigated the ques- 
tion, assert that the treaty between Russia and Great 
Britain provided that the Yukon, Porcupine, and Skeena 
Rivers should be free for commercial purposes and ex- 
empted from the imposition of customs duties. The 
Canadians evade the point at issue by claiming that 
prospectors crossing the mountain ranges to the lakes 
or headwaters of the Yukon do not go into the terri- 
tory via any of the rivers mentioned, but that they cross 
Canadian territory, and before they can reach the Yukon 
the duty is exacted. 



CACHE OF PROVISIONS. QI 

The Canadian officers are taking with them a full 
year's supplies, and with the assistance of the mounted 
police propose to maintain an official monthly mail 
service, for official purposes only, between the Klondike 
and Ottawa. 

In conclusion, here are a few pointers dictated by ex- 
perience for the benefit of the Klondiker. For the most 
part their observance will involve but little trouble, and, 
on the other hand, will add vastly to one's comfort while 
in the frozen lands : 

Don't waste a single ounce of anything, even if you 
don't like it. Put it away and it will come handy when 
you will like it. 

If it is ever necessary to cache a load of provisions, 
put all articles next to the ground which will be most 
affected by heat, providing at the same time that damp- 
ness will not affect their food properties to any great 
extent. After piling your stuff, carefully heap heavy 
rocks over it. Take your compass bearings, and 
also note in your pocket some landmarks near by, and 
also the direction in which they lie from your cache — 
i. e. y make your cache, if possible, come between ex- 
actly north and south of two given prominent marks. - In 
this way, even though covered by snow, you can locate 
your " existence." Don't forget that this may be the 
proper name for it at some future time. 

Shoot a dog, if you have to, behind the base of the 
skull ; a horse between the ears, ranging downward. 
Press the trigger of your rifle. Don't pull it. Don't 



Q2 IMPORTANT POINTS. 

catch hold of the barrel when thirty degrees below zero 
is registered. Watch out against getting snow in your 
barrel. If you do, don't shoot it out or the gun may 
and probably will burst. 

A little dry grass or hay in the inside of your mittens, 
next your hands, will help retain the heat, especially 
when they get damp from the moisture of your hands. 
After taking off your mittens, remove the hay ond dry 
it. Failing that, throw it away. 

If by any chance you are traveling across a plain (no 
trail) and a fog comes up, or a blinding snowstorm, 
either of which will prevent you from taking your bear- 
ings, camp, and don't move, no matter what any one may 
urge, until the weather becomes clear again. 

Keep all your draw-strings on clothing in good 
repair. Don't forget to use your goggles when the sun 
is bright on snow. A fellow is often tempted to leave 
them off. Don't you do it. 

Travel as much on clear ice toward your goal as pos- 
sible in the spring. Don't try to pull sledges over snow, 
especially when it is soft or crusty. 

If you build a sledge for extreme cold don't use steel 
runners. Make wooden ones, and freeze water on them 
before starting out. Repeat the process if the sled 
begins to drag and screech. 

In building a sledge use lashing entirely. Bolts and 
screws rack a sledge to pieces in rough going, while 
lashing will "give," 

Take plenty of tow for packing possible cracks in your 



POINTS CONTINUED. g- 

boat, also two pounds of good putty, some canvas, and, 
if possible, a small can of tar or white lead. 

Establish camp rules, especially regarding the food. 
Allot rations, less while idle than when at work, and 
also varying with the seasons, a man requiring less food, 
or at any rate less of certain kinds in warm than in cold 
weather. 

Keep your furs in good repair. One little slit may 
cause you untold agony during a march in a heavy storm. 
You cannot tell when such a storm will overtake you. 

Norman can continuously drag more than his own 
weight. Remember this is a fact. 

Be sure during the winter to watch your foot-gear care- 
fully. Change wet stockings before they freeze, or you 
may lose a toe or foot. 

Keep the hood of your kooletah back from your head 
if not too cold, and allow the moisture from your body 
to escape that way. 

If your furs get wet dry them in a medium tempera- 
ture. Don't hold them near a fire. 

When your nose is bitterly cold stuff both nostrils with 
fur, cotton, wool, or anything else soft enough. The 
pain will cease. 

Don't try to carry more than forty pounds of stuff 
over a stiff climb, at least the first day. 

In cases of extreme cold at toes and heel, wrap a piece 
of fur over each extremity. 

Keep your sleeping-bag clean. If it becomes inhab- 
ited with vermin freeze the inhabitants out. 



g* POINTS CONCLUDED. 

Remember success follows economy and persistency 
on an expedition like yours. 

White snow over a crevasse, if hard, is safe ; yellow 
or dirty color, never. 

Don't eat snow or ice. Go thirsty until you can melt it. 

Shoot a deer behind the left shoulder or in the head. 

Choose your bunk as far from tent door as possible. 

Keep a fire hole open near your camp. 

The man who knows little now will come back know- 
ing more than he who knew it all before starting. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE MINING CAMPS OF THE UPPER YUKON : THEIR LIFE 
AND LAWS. 

Phases of Human Existence in the Ice-Bound Towns — Circle City as a 
Base of Supplies and the Metropolis of the Yukon Country — Fort 
Cudahy and the Famous Forty-Mile Post — Dogs by the Hundred- 
Homes Without the Vanities of Civilized Regions — Gambling with 
Big Stakes — Liquor Traffic and Its Evils— The Boom at Dawson 
City — Some Strange Things About the Mail Service — A Small For- 
tune Spent in Delivering Each Mail Bag— Bottles of Gold the Legal 
Tender — The Canadian Mounted Police. 

NOWHERE else on earth will the student of human 
nature find more to interest him than in the 
mining camps of the frontier. In no other spot will he 
find the conditions which surround the existence of man 
so strangely varied. The sudden gathering of all 
classes, races and ages, widely separated in birth and 
breeding, character and customs and tongue, confronted 
by the greatest hardships, surrounded by the extremes 
of human joy and human sorrow, brings about a situa- 
tion that forms a basis for many startling chapters in the 
book of life. 

The ice-bound camps of the great Yukon have not 
been very different in history from those which have ex- 
isted elsewhere in other times, but some of the phases 
of life familiar in the outposts of civilization, where the 
greed for gold has been the great factor of the day, have 
been accentuated by the isolation and the peculiar hard- 
ships which the men who lived there encountered. There 
has been a notably small amount of the more important 

95 



96 LAWLESSNESS. 

forms of vice. The people seem less indifferent to the 
rights of their neighbors, less careless about the sanctity 
of human life than in other mining camps. This may be 
because the inhabitants of the ice bound camps feel that 
the great distance of the places from outside help, makes 
it necessary that they should, by simple laws of their own, 
keep in check the dangerous tendencies of such com- 
munities, or it may be because the red record of other 
mining towns has taught humanity a lesson that is not 
to be soon forgotten. Lawlessness there is, and probably 
always will be where men are gathered under such cir- 
cumstances, but the verdict of the best authorities seems 
to be that Dawson City is morally a better place in 1897 
than Leadville was in 1879, or Cripple Creek was in 1895 
and 1896. In the scramble for treasure, the sordid selfish- 
ness of humanity has not covered up the tenderness and 
sympathy and generosity that is in the hearts of 
nearly all men, and there are many cases in the annals 
of the Yukon country which go to show that the sunny 
side of life shines quite as brightly sometimes in the arc- 
tic regions of the United States as it does in the metrop- 
olis of the nation. 

Circle City was up to the time of the Klondike dis- 
covery the most important town of the Yukon country. 
It was a base of supplies for hundreds of prospectors, 
and in its palmiest days was a lively town. Until last 
winter the miners spent most of their time in the town, 
as they had not learned the trick of working the frozen 
ground. This made different forms of amusement popu- 
lar, and the town boasted in addition to its gaming and 



CIRCLE CITY. 97 

small dance halls, two variety theatres. Circle City 
stands on a level plain near the most northern bend of 
the Yukon River. It obtains its name from its proxim- 
ity to the Arctic Circle. In the back-ground is the low- 
range of hills, across which runs the now well-known 
portage of six miles to Birch Creek. 

Circle City is a log town. Four hundred buildings 
constructed of roughly hewed logs line the streets. The 
style of architecture is unvaried. Whether the building 
is large or small it is low and square with wide project- 
ing eaves and a roof covered with dirt. The cracks be- 
tween the logs are chinked with mud, moss, paper and 
old clothes. The smaller cabins can be built by a couple 
of men in a few days, and when completed, they rent for 
$15 or $20 a month. The lots on which they are built 
can be bought for $2.50 from the town clerk, and the 
house and ground together bring from $300 to $500 ac- 
cording to location. The building logs are rafted down 
the river from some wooded islands twenty miles above. 
Some simple methods of sawing have now been adopted, 
and by paying a good price, crude boards can be ob- 
tained. 

It was once said that there were more dogs in Circle 
City to each inhabitant than in any other town in the 
world. There were so many that no attempt was made 
to feed them all, and as a result, in their foraging for 
food, they became a nuisance. So ravenous were many 
of them that even miners' boots, brushes and other valu- 
able articles were torn in pieces and devoured by them. 
Every available dog has been hurried off to the Klondike 



98 ESKIMO DOGS. 

as a beast of burden, and no doubt, more than one of 
them will have fallen a prey to the appetite of man before 
they see Circle City again 

Robert Krook, the Swedish Klondike miner, says 
that Eskimo dogs will draw 200 pounds each on a sled, 
so that six dogs will draw a year's supplies for one man. 
He, however, puts in the proviso that the sleds should 
not have iron runners, because the snow sticks to the 
iron and increases the friction so much that the dogs 
cannot haul more than 100 pounds apiece. With brass 
runners this drawback is obviated. Last winter Eskimo 
dogs cost from $75 to $200 apiece, and he does not think 
the price will increase materially, because when the de- 
mand is known the supply from other parts of Alaska 
will be plentiful at Dyea and other points along the Yu- 
kon. Sometimes the feet of the dogs get sore and then 
the Indians fit mocassins on them ; as soon, however, as 
the tenderness is gone from their feet, the dogs will bite 
and tear the mocassins off. In speaking of the dogs, he 
said that they need no lines to guide them and are 
very intelligent, learning readily to obey a command to 
turn in any direction or to stop. They have to be 
watched closely, as they will attack and devour stores 
left in their way, especially bacon, which must be hung 
up out of their reach. At night, when camp is pitched, 
the moment a blanket is thrown upon the ground they 
will run into it and curl up, and neither cuffs nor kicks 
suffice to budge them. They lie as close up to the 
men who own them as possible, and the miner cannot 
wrap himself up so close that they won't get under his 



QUEER TEAMS. 99 

blanket with him. They are human, too, in their disin- 
clination to get out in the morning. 

Where sleds cannot be used, the dogs will carry fifty 
pounds apiece in saddlebags, slung across their backs 
in pannier fashion. Nature has fitted these dogs for 
their work, and mastiffs and St. Bernards are not as 
serviceable. The two latter breeds cannot stand the 
intense cold so well, and though at first they will draw 
the sleds cheerfully, their feet cannot resist the strain, 
and begin to bleed so freely that the dogs are useless. 
The pads under the feet of the Eskimo dogs are of 
tougher skin. 

Circle City came into existence when some half- 
breed Indians discovered gold in considerable quantities 
on Birch Creek, several years ago. Supplies from 
down the Yukon River began early to pass through 
the town and over the portage to Birch Creek. 
The cost of transportation is $45 for 100 pounds and 
upwards, which high rate is felt severely by the miners. 
Once on Birch Creek the supplies are sent up the stream 
by boats, which are propelled by the slow poling process. 
One of the queer teams, until recently, engaged in the 
supply traffic to the creek, was composed of a moose, 
which had been caught when a calf and trained, and a 
mule. The moose, which was the pride of its owner, a 
Circle City merchant, was shot one day by a tenderfoot, 
who had heard many stories of Alaska game, and 
believed the animal had wandered into the town in 
search of food. 

The theatres in Circle City are not supplied with the 



IOO THEATRICALS. 

best talent in the land, but there is frequently a "show" ' 
at one or the other, and if the scenery and surroundings ; 
are not of the most pretentious, the result is not seen in i 
a small audience. One of the theatrical troops which i 
visited Circle City last winter was composed of six ; 
young women and five men, who walked something like 
500 miles in the course of their journey for the purpose 
of amusing the miners. They were all dressed in 1 
Mackinaw suits with trousers. 

The present conception of the popular taste in 1 
Alaska seems to be that the public wants a strong show, 
and in the attempt to meet the demand the managers 
cannot find anything up to the standard in books and 
are driven to the point of inventing new features. " The 
man from Douglas Island" was an original drama thati 
was offered to the people of Juneau. The title had i 
local significance, as Douglas Island is just across the 
channel from the town. It was a very successful play. 
The hero was a barkeeper named Charlie, and the hero- 
ine, to use the hero's own words, was a "perfect lady," 
who had a desire to see something of the town with a 1 
fancy, rather unusual in a person of that description, for r 
incidentally "hitting the pipe." There was a bootblack, , 
a Chinaman, an Irish policeman, a dude and a number 1 
of sports and "ladies " in the piece. After the requisite; 
amount of adversity and bad luck had been ground out, 
the hero, with the help of the bootblack, triumphed over 1 
the dude, got a "pull" with the policeman, married the 
heroine and otherwise attained brilliant success as the 
proprietor of the "finest joint in the town," to quote his 
own language again. 



DISTRIBUTING MAIL. IOI 

Up to within the last few months it was the custom in 
Circle City for the postmaster, upon the arrival of the 
mail, to stand upon a shoe-box before the assembled 
populace and read off the address on each letter. Each 
fortunate man would step up as his name was called 
and get his letter, and be envied by his lucky fellow citi- 
zen. There were some touching- scenes on these occa- 
sions. Many of the men had not heard from home and 
friends for many months, some of them not for years. 
There were many surprises in the letters. Some of 
them brought joy to the hearts of those who read them, 
but there were others to whom the missives meant only 
disappointment and grief, and so smiles and tears mixed 
in the motley gathering. 

There are three or four doctors and as many lawyers, 
though briefless ones, for the days of litigation have not 
come, and nearly every walk of life is represented for 
better or worse in this arctic city. Nobody bothers 
about free or any other kind of coinage. Dust is the 
legal tender and it is passed about in bags and bottles, 
bier and little, with the same freedom that the Philadel- 
phian exchanges his coins for pins and potatoes. Of 
course, much of the dust which has cost so much to 
gain in labor and time and hardship goes easily and 
rapidly over the bars in the saloons, and into the pockets 
of the men who shuffle dirty cards for a living, and into 
the hands of painted-faced women, who dance very 
badly for the amusement of their motley audiences. 

When a Circle City man has been there long enough 
to acquire a quantity of gold dust, in the absence of a 



102 BUCKSKIN GOLD BAGS. 

bank, he takes it around and puts it into Jack McQues<; 
tion's or Capt. Healy's safe ; that is, those who do not 
care to keep it themselves. Miners are susceptible to 
the fascination of the dance hall and to the click of ivory;! 
chips, and they know it is better not to have their goldi 
too convenient. They are much addicted to tossing: 
their nuggets over the bar and saying : " Here, Macki 
— never mind the change; I'll dance it all out !" 

So they take their buckskin bags and hand them over 
the counter. Some are long and slender, with more roomi 
than dust in them, while others are bulky and well-filledi 
like shot bags ; but the striking thing about it is that 
there is no account taken of them. The owner's name- 
is generally written on the bag, but the dust is not 
weighed, nor is any entry made or receipt given for it. 
In their relations to each other these men are much like- 
a big family. In one safe were nuggets and dust to the 
amount of something over $100,000. 

Fort Cudahy and Forty-Mile Post are on opposite- 
sides of Forty-Mile Creek at the point where it joins the 
Yukon. Being in British territory where they are under 
the eyes of the Canadian police, law and order are pre- 
served with somewhat less difficulty than at Circle City. 
The latter town suffers much from the constant influx of 
undesirable characters who escape across the border in 
search of safety on the American side. Forty Mile is? 
the most important of the two settlements, and the indi-i 
cations point to a prosperous future for it. There arei 
some 250 cabins there and the number is being con- 
stantly added to. No animal save man and dog was 



AI4ASKA COMMERCIAL COMPANY. IO3 

5een in its streets until recently, and there is not a wheel- 
d vehicle in the place. 

The Alaska Commercial Company has a two-story 
Duilding for its agents' office, and there are others ; a 
ew saloons and stores and the Pioneer Hotel, but there 
lb one form of architecture that seems to fill all the re- 
quirements of the climate and of taste. It is a log 
house twenty feet square, with a perfectly flat, dirt- 
covered top. The top of the house is a hanging gar- 
den, which, if the structure is more than a year old, is 
covered with a rank growth of weeds. When the town 
(begins to take some note of its appearance the mowing 
of the roof will be one of the householder's regular 
iduties. 

It would be hard to find anything else than dirt that 
would keep out the cold. In building such a house 
there is a groove cut in what is to be the underside of 
each log, that it may fit down snug to the timber just 
beneath it, and there is a packing of moss put in all the 
joints between the logs to fill all possible inequalities. 
Moss is the best non-conductor of heat or cold that the 
country affords, and it is put to a variety of uses in 
building. To make a roof a course of stout poles is first 
laid across, and after that a thick coating of moss ; then 
the flower garden is put on — that is, about a foot of dirt. 
There is no floor, except the natural one, and the furni- 
ture is an after consideration, made to suit, the require- 
ments of the occupants ; a bedstead made^ altogether of 
poles, as is usually the table also, chairs,,of great variety 
of design and finish, a moose-skin rug or two, and the 



104 FORTY MILE HOUSE. 

invariable Yukon stove. The latter is made of sheet-: 
iron, and weighs about twenty-five pounds. There are* 
no vanities of any sort about a Forty Mile house. It is? 
made primarily to keep out the cold. It has a single: 
door — extending no higher or lower or wider than is ; 
necessary for getting in or out — and a single window of I 
four small panes of glass. In winter another sash is 
put in to make a double thickness. 

Forty Mile suffers, as do all the towns of the Yukon 
country, because of the uncertainty about supplies. Each 
boat on the river carries goods to its utmost capacity, 
but even that is not enough, and when the next boat 
happens to be a week or two late the price of provisions 
rises as rapidly from day to day as does wheat in the pro- 
duce exchange in bull times. Arrangements are, how- 
ever, being perfected to do away with this difficulty, and 
human ingenuity will undoubtedly succeed at this task. 

The great man of Forty Mile is at present a Swede 
named Johnny Miller. He has been in Alaska eight 
years, and hope had nearly failed him when last winter 
he started a hole in the ground out of which he took 
within a few weeks more than 250 pounds of the yellow 
metal, and he is still taking it out. 

The gold diggings of the Yukon are graded according 
to their depth as winter and summer mines, a classifica- 
tion that has been recognized only within the last two 
years. Until within that time the miners considered it 
impracticable to do any work in the winter, and so they 
hibernated for eight long, dark months, consuming what 
they had earned during the short summer season. Win- 



WINTER WORK. I05 

ter was a time for gambling and dissipation, and they all 
collected at Forty Mile, and whiled away the long night 
of self-imposed imprisonment. 

Though the people of Forty Mile still expect quite a 
muster from the mines at the approach of cold weather, 
there is a very radical change from the old order. They 
have discovered that they can accomplish more in winter 
than in summer, and as a consequence the working year 
is three times as lone as it used to be. And here comes 
in the utility of classifying the diggings according to their 
depth. If the gold lies only from two to six or seven 
feet from the surface it is necessary to remove all the 
worthless ground, throwing it to one side until after the. 
pay dirt is taken out, after which it may be piled where 
it was originally taken from. The difficulty of such min- 
ing is increased threefold by the fact that the ground is 
frozen. Every foot of it, either in sinking or drifting, has 
to be thawed by small fires. The shallower mines — the 
whole process being in the open air — are worked in 
summer. In the other kind, where the gravel is more 
than seven feet from the surface, they sink a shaft for a 
beginning, and then burrow or drift under the superficial 
part, removing only enough dirt to allow space to work 
in. These operations being under ground, where the 
miner is protected from the weather, are better adapted 
for the cold season. So the miner builds his cabin at 
the mouth of his shaft, gets in a supply of wood to the 
most accessible place, and tranquilly views the approach 
of cold weather. 

If he is of provident habit it is not necessary for him to 



106 DAWSON CITY. 

expose himself greatly. He must bring to the surface » 
and dump possibly a ton of "dead" ground in a day, , 
and also carry and leave in a safe place a few hundred i 
pounds of pay gravel. There is no necessity for being; 
out of doors more than a minute or two at a time. 

If one is prepared for them, the winters at the mines 
are not killing bad by any means. Seventy degrees be- 
low zero is about the coldest, but that is not of frequent I 
occurrence. There is a good deal of dry, still weather, , 
with the thermometer from io° to 30 below, and as much 1 
probably, early and late in the season, when it hardly 
falls below the zero mark. 

August and September are the months for preparing ; 
for winter and also for prospecting. During that time a 1 
great many of the men hunt for awhile and endeavor to 1 
lay in a supply of fresh meat. 

West of the Klondike River at its junction with the 
Yukon and on the north bank of the latter is located the 
now world famous camp called Dawson City. It is the 
metropolis of the Klondike country and if not the largest 
city in the world, it now takes first rank among the live- 
liest and most thriving. For months thousands have 
turned their eyes toward it longingly. Hundreds have 
arrived there within the last few weeks and hundreds 
more are striving with all the energy and persistence 
man is capable of to get there. Unless something un- 
forseen occurs it will have many thousands within its 
fold before another year has passed. In the meantime 
all is bustle. Homes, offices, stores, churches and all the 
other requisites of a big town in the way of buildings are 




Chilkoot Mountains — Route to Mines. 





Mt. St. Elias and ( Muir Glazier. 



BUSINESS HOUSES. IO9 

being hurried to completion for present and future uses 
and hundreds of busy hands are delving in the gulches 
and canons and mountains and streams beyond for the 
yellow treasure that brought Dawson into existence. 

Dawson City is in the character of its buildings and 
inhabitants much like its sister camps. There are at 
present two stores. One of the Alaska Commercial 
Company, the other of the North American Transporta- 
tion and Trading Company. On these two establish- 
ments everyone who goes to Dawson without provisions 
must rely mainly. Even those who have a good outfit 
will find it often necessary to patronize one or other of 
the stores. Prices are on an average three times as high 
as at Juneau or St. Michaels and four to five times as 
steep as in San Francisco. When the winter is nearly 
over and supplies begin to run short prices are, as a 
consequence, raised. Toward the close of last winter 
before the new supplies came up the river prices were 
doubled. All through the winter men arrive at such 
mining towns as Dawson City, bringing with them from 
one to two tons of food and clothing. They go up the 
streams and peddle their goods, taking care to lose 
nothing for their time and trouble. 

There is but one blacksmith shop and to this place all 
the miners for miles around must go to have their tools 
repaired or for the purpose of getting implements made 
to order which the stores cannot supply. 

Dawson City can boast of two good practicing physi- 
cians — Police Surgeon Wills and another doctor who 
went from Circle City to Dawson last year. They carry 



HO WAGES PREVAILING. 

their own supplies of staple drugs and medicines, so as 
to be able to compound their own prescriptions. Ordi- 
nary remedies are to be obtained at the two trading 
stores. There was one lodging-house in Dawson last 
winter, though the name lodging-house is a courtesy in 
this case. It was a low, log house and is now being re- 
placed by a better one. Laborers in the mines and 
handicraftsmen fare about the same, though carpenters 
last winter obtained $20 a day, whereas miners got $15. 
The difficulty is to find men willing to work at their 
trades. 

The cost of living at Dawson for a man living alone 
varies from $5.00 to $10.00 a day. Single meals have 
been costing $1.50. There are two assayers and fifty 
will be there by next spring probably. Overalls cost 
$3.00 a pair; stockings, $1.50; coats and trousers, 
$10.00 each and upwards ; shoes, $8.00 a pair ; shirts, 
$5.00; flour, $12.00 per hundred; pans, $2.50; picks, 
$7.00, and so on. 

Joseph Ladue, one of the most celebrated of the 
Alaska bonanza kings, was the founder of Dawson City 
and the owner of the site. He has done much to insure 
the future prosperity of the city by encouraging the 
building of a school house and promoting other institu- 
tions. While there has been much of the usual excite- 
ment of the mining camp at Dawson, considering the 
character of the population very little trouble of any 
kind has thus far been reported. Gambling for high 
stakes is to be seen on every side, but the Canadian 
government is making a desperate effort to curb the 



NO LIQUORS. 1 1 1 

liquor traffic and its consequent evils. The law against 
carrying fire arms is as strictly enforced as is possible, 
and the result of this is noteworthy. 

Collector Ivey, who has gone to Alaska to assume 
charge of the customs district of that Territory, it is 
understood, has specific instructions from the Treasury 
Department to enforce to the letter the executive order 
restricting the importation and sale of liquors in Alaska. 

Under the laws governing the Territory of Alaska, no 
liquors, malt or vinous, can be imported, manufactured, 
or sold there, save by a special permit, allowing their 
use for medicinal, mechanical or scientific purposes. 
Despite this regulation, there are now in Alaska five 
breweries in operation, and 142 other places where 
liquors are sold. Alaska is in the internal revenue dis- 
trict of Oregon, and during the year 1896 there were 
147 special taxes collected from persons engaged in sell- 
ing liquor. There are numerous saloons in Juneau, 
Sitka, and other Alaskan towns where liquor is obtained 
for the asking, and no attempt is made to conceal the 
fact that this business is being carried on. The special 
tax which every one in the liquor business is forced to 
pay is not issued as a license, or to afford any protection 
to the holder, as it is expressly stated thereon that the 
same shall not be in conflict with any municipal, county 
or State laws concerning the regulation of the liquor 
traffic. 

The sale of liquor in Alaska is only allowed under the 
Executive order for medicinal, mechanical or scientific 
purposes, by persons who obtain a permit to do so from 



112 SPECIAL REGULATIONS. 

the Governor of the Territory. Before the permit is 
issued the applicant has to make an affidavit and furnish 
a bond in not less than $500 that he will not sell intoxi- 
cating liquors to any person not known to him, or duly 
identified, nor to a person in the habit of becoming in- 
toxicated, nor on his premises, and that he will make full 
returns of the disposition of liquor he is permitted to 
have. Every person under the regulations who secures 
a permit from the Governor to sell liquors for medicinal, 
mechanical and scientific purposes is required to secure 
from the Collector of the Oregon district a special tax 
receipt as a liquor dealer. Two of the breweries pay a 
special tax on the manufacture of 500 barrels of beer 
or over, and the remaing three on less than 500. The 
other special taxes are issued to druggists and retail 
liquor dealers. 

Just how five breweries and 142 other places can find 
it a paying business to sell liquors only for medicinal, 
mechanical and scientific purposes is the question that 
Collector Ivey has to wrestle with. It is understood that 
he has explicit instructions to enforce the regulations 
against liquor in his district, and, if he does, the law, 
hitherto more honored in the breach than in its obser- 
vance, is likely to become odious, and be followed by a 
strong effort to secure the removal of the present re- 
strictions. 

On the American side the only laws which are en- 
forced to keep order in the camps are such as the peo- 
ple themselves have made. Lynch law and the regula- 
tions of the Vigilantes, who are organized in the larger 



MOUNTED POLICE. 113 

towns, are the only codes really effective, as the forces 
of the American government do not at present extend 
beyond the older settlements of the coast. But on the 
Canadian side the case is different. 

Here and there among the mass of matter that has 
been written concerning the wonderful Klondike mines, 
brief allusions have been made to the fact that a little 
body of mounted police has been patrolling the district 
ever since the excitement began, keeping perfect order 
and preserving among the constantly swelling popula- 
tions of the various camps as peaceable conditions as 
can be found in the heart of any highly civilized commu- 
nity. And in all the speculation concerning the future 
of the locality, its probable immense growth and the fear 
of starvation, sickness and death, no fear has ever been 
expressed that anything in the nature of lawlessness or 
crime may get the upper hand and run rampant, or that 
property rights and safety of the person will be in the 
least danger. 

Though the excellent British mining laws, or rather, 
laws founded by the Canadians on British precedent, are 
in the main responsible for this feeling of security, the 
men who undertake their enforcement are, after all, en- 
titled to a great share of the credit, for good laws, illy 
enforced, are worse than useless. The Northwest 
Mounted Police of Canada, a body whose wonderful dis- 
cipline and bravery have given the Dominion food for 
most of her later literature, are the officers in whose 
hands has been placed the carrying out of these laws, 
and at this time, therefore, something concerning that 



I 14 INDIAN TROUBLES. 

organization and its internal workings should be of] 
interest. 

The Northwest Mounted Police, whose scarlet tunic is ; 
the symbol of law and order in the Northwest, were : 
organized when Alexander Mackenzie was Premier, and I 
were one of Sir John Macdonald's inspirations, and after 
his return to power, in 1878, they always remained under 
his own eye. The nucleus of the force was got together 
at Manitoba in 1873. They originally numbered 300, , 
and by their coolness and pluck, at critical periods, they 
accomplished much in reducing the Indians and lawless 
whisky traders to a state of order. The police built 
posts and protected the white settlers and the surveyors, 
who had already begun parceling out the Country and 
exploring the route of the Canadian Pacific Railway. In 
1877, nearly the whole of the little force was concen- 
trated on the southwestern frontier to watch and check 
the 6000 Sioux, who sought refuge in Canada after their 
defeat and massacre of Custer and his little command 
on the Little Big Horn. It was through the efforts of 
the Mounted Police that the Sioux were finally induced 
to surrender peacefully to the United States authorities 
in 1880-81. After the outbreak of the half-breeds under 
Louis Reil, in 1885, the force was increased to, 1000 
men, their present number. 

The Mounted Police, like the Royal Irish Constabu- 
lary, on which it was modeled, is in the eye of the law a 
purely civil body. Its officers are magistrates, the men 
are constables. But so far as circumstances will allow, 
its organization, internal economy and drill are those of 



P0UC3 ORGANIZATION. 1 1 5 

a cavalry regiment, and when on active service in a mili- 
tary capacity the officers have army rank. The affairs of 
the force are managed by a distinct department of the 
Government at Ottawa, under the supervision of a 
Cabinet Minister. The executive command is held by 
an officer styled the Commissioner and ranking as Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. The Assistant Commissioner ranks 
with a Major, and after three years' service as a Lieu- 
tenant-Colonel. Ten superintendents, with captains' 
rank, command the divisions, with about thirty-five in- 
spectors as subalterns, who correspond to lieutenants. 
The medical staff consists of a surgeon, five assistant 
surgeons and two veterinary surgeons. The non-com- 
missioned officers are as in the army, while the troopers 
are called constables. 

The rank and file are not excelled by any picked corps 
in any service. A recruit must be between twenty-two 
and forty-five years old, of good character, able to read 
and write English or French, active, well-built and of 
sound constitution. The physique is very fine, the aver- 
age of the whole thousand being five feet nine and a half 
inches in height, and thirty-eight and a half inches 
round the chest. 

There has always been an unusual proportion of men 
of good family and education in the service. Lots of 
young Englishmen who came out to try their hand at 
farming in the far west have drifted into the police, as 
also many well-connected Canadians, Waifs and strays 
from everywhere and of every calling are to be found in 
the ranks. The roll call would show many defaulters if 




Il6 POSTAL FACILITIES. 

no man answered to any name but his own. There is 
at least one lord in the force and many university gradu- 
ates. 

The officers' pay is not large, ranging from $2400 a 
year to the Commissioner to $1000 to the inspectors, 
with, of course, quarters, rations, fuel, etc. 

The Klondike is even more squeamish on some points 
than some older diggings, like Gotham and Paris. 
Bloomers don't go. Capt. Constantine, of the Canadian 
mounted police says so, and from his words there is no 
appeal. The new women can straddle Chilkoot Pass in 
bloomers if they like, but in the chaste and refined so- 
ciety circles of Dawson and Cudahy, skirts are "en 
regie" — even if "de trop." 

No one ever locks a cabin door. You can leave a few 
thousands in gold dust lying around loose, and on one 
will steal it. This forbearance is not so remarkable as 
it seems. If a thief did steal when there is nothing to 
break through he couldn't spend his money or leave the 
country unsuspected. 

It will be of interest to know that there are post office 
facilities for the gold fields of Alaska, and the Northwest 
territory, for many persons have started for that region 
and their friends will naturally be anxious to hear from 
them. Additional contracts for the delivery of mail have 
been made in the Post Office Department in view of the 
influx of Americans there. 

Since July 1st contracts for mail over what is known 
as "the overland route " from Juneau to Circle City have 
been made by the department. The round trip over the 



VARIOUS PLANS. 117 

Chilkoot Pass and by way of the chain of lakes and the 
Lewes river takes about a month, the distance being 
about 900 miles. There will be a mail carrying party to 
leave regularly on the first of each month hereafter. 
The cost is about $600 for the round trip. The Chilkoot 
Pass is crossed with the mail by means of Indian carriers. 
On the previous trips the carriers after finishing the pass 
built the boats, but they now have their own to pass 
the lakes and the Lewes river. 

In the winter, transportation is carried on by means of 
dog sleds, and it is hoped that under the present con- 
tracts there will be no stoppage, no matter how low the 
temperature may go. The contractor has reported that 
he was sending a boat, in sections, byway of St. Michael, 
up the Yukon river, to be used on the waterway of the 
route, and it is thought much time will be saved by this, 
as in former times it was necessary for the carriers to 
stop and build boats or rafts to pass the lakes. 

In addition to this for the summer season, contracts 
have been made with two steamboat companies for two 
trips from Seattle to St. Michael, and three from there to 
Seattle. When the steamers reach St. Michael, the mail 
will be transferred from the steamers to the flat-bottomed 
boats running up the Yukon as far as Circle City. It is 
believed the boats now run further up. 

The contracts for the overland route call for only first- 
class matter, whereas the steamers in the summer season 
carry everything up to five tons a trip. 

Some extracts from the official report of the second 
assistant postmaster general for the fiscal year ending 



1 1 8 BEDDOE'S REPORT. 

June I, 1896, will prove of interest. Under date of Sep- 
tember 23, 1896, contractor Beddoe wrote to the depart-: 
ment concerning the trip to Circle City, the establishment 
of that post office having been authorized March 1 9, 1 896: 

He says : 

" I have just returned from my first round trip through! 
to Circle City with the United States mail, under con- 
tract route No. 78,103, and in accordance with your in-i 
structions, corroborating those received through the 
superintendent of the Pacific coast, at Seattle, I delivered 
the return mail from Circle City to the postmaster at 
Seattle and accompanied to Juneau such mail as remained 
for that point. 

"I have already delivered (or have en route) the mail 
for June, July, August and September. It will be im- 
possible for any other mail to leave here until spring, 
outside of the winter contract. 

"If you were familiar with the conditions which obtain 
in the Yukon you would be in a better position to re- 
gulate the dates of departure and arrival for said service. 
For instance, I left this point on June 10 for Dyea; for 
sixteen hours it was impossible to land owing to storms, 
and as the landing is made in small boats, the condi-i 
tions must be favorable. I took with me sufficient 
lumber to build two boats; the ones I had already built 
could not be taken over the summit in consequence of 
excessive snow storms. Upon my arrival at the base of 
the summit the Indian packers refused to go over withi 
the lumber. I was compelled to abandon it there, hav- 
ing paid $67.50 for packing it. The packing of sup- 



DIFFICULTIES OVERCOME. II9 

plies, etc., cost $320 additional. However, I pushed on 
and upon arriving at Lake Lindeman, a distance of 
thirty miles, I built a raft, there being no lumber in that 
locality, and upon this raft we journed to Lake Bennett, 
where we found sufficient lumber to build a boat. A 
start was made in five days after arrival, although the 
lumber had to be cut from the trees, and from there on 
we traveled day and night until our destination, Circle 
City, was reached and the mails delivered in good order. 

"The question now was to get the return mail to 
Juneau the quickest moment. It was impossible to 
start up the river in consequence of the rapid water, 
the current averaging eight miles an hour for 500 miles. 
If I remained in Circle City until July 30 it would 
probably take forty-five days to pole the boat up the 
river. I therefore decided to go on down to St. Michaels 
and come out through Bering Sea. I was fortunate in 
getting there in time for the steamship " Portland," which 
sailed from that point to Seattle, via Unalaska — 3,500 
miles. At Seattle, I took the Alki and reached here in 
due course, having traveled 6,500 miles in addition to 
the regular trip, and saving thereby over a month of 
time in the delivery of the return mail; and I owe it to 
myself to say that I was the last man into the Yukon 
and the first one out this season, which is evidence that 
no unnecessary delay occured. 

"The Yukon trip is a terrible one, the current of the 
river even attaining ten miles an hour. Miles Canyon is 
a veritable death trap into which one is likely to be drawn 
without notice, and the White Horse rapids, known as 



120 WHITS HORSE RAPIDS. 

the miners' grave, to say nothing of the Five Finger ano 
Rink rapids, both of which are very dangerous. All ot 
these dangers are aggravated by reason of the defective 
maps and reports of the country. 

"It is my intention to submit to the department a maj 
with many corrections, although in the absence of t 
proper survey it will necessarily be only an approximate 
reflection of the river's course. You are probably noi 
aware that for a distance of 1 50 miles, commencing at 
Circle City, and going north, the river is fifty miles be- 
tween banks, and contains thousands of islands, very few 
of which appear on any map. 

"It is impossible to perform this mail contract without 
having at least three parties fully equipped, the distance 
being so great and it being out of the question for the 
first party to return in time to depart with the succeeding 
mail, and the expense of each will be about the same. I 
shall have made four round trips by the end of this month.! 
The last mail in should arrive at Circle City in one week 
from now. The return mails I am looking for daily. At 
the end of this month the north end of the Yukon riven 
will freeze and the ice will gradually form to the south, 
and the same, as a waterway, will become impassable 
and remain so until midwinter." 






CHAPTER VI. 

PLACER MINING. 



Ancient and modern methods as applied to the Klondike fields — How the riches are 
carried from mountain to gulch and plain — Pans, rockers, sluice-boxes, and 
other implements of the miner's craft — Watching for the yellow metal in the 
streams of muddy water — The wonders of hydraulic operations — Methods in 
vogue on the frozen gravels of Alaska — Opinions of experts on the present and 
future. 

IN spite of the fact that gold has been known to man 
and struggled for since pre-historic times, it is only 
within the last half-century that any satisfactory methods 
have been employed for its extraction from the earth. 
The discoveries in California in 1849, followed almost 
immediately by those in Australia, turned the energies 
of thousands of able, active, intelligent men into this 
new channel. In the mad race for wealth which then 
ensued, the primitive methods in use up to that time 
were found to be too crude and too slow to satisfy the 
ambitions of modern gold diggers. This is particularly 
true of the methods then and now in vogue for working 
the poorer alluvials and low-grade reefs which remain 
after the rich shallow placers and superficial pockets of 
gold quartz have been exausted on a claim. 

Without going deeply into the subject of the forma- 
tion of the element known to the world as gold, it is suf- 
ficient to say that the mineral is deposited in ledges or 

121 



j 22 QUARTZ MINING. 

veins of quartz, ranging in thickness from the leaf to 
several inches. There are instances, though very few, 
where these veins have reached several feet of almost 
pure gold. These veins extend from the surface of the 
ground, in a slanting direction, sometimes several thou- 
sand feet into the earth. The surface ends of these 
ledges are often exposed on the edge of a mountain, and 
have come to be known in the mining world as the " out- 
croppings." Often, however, they are covered by sev- 
eral feet of forbidding gravel and earth and only the 
patient labors of the gold seeker reveal them. Undoubt- 
edly thousands of these precious ledges remain unknown 
to man, and probably will remain so always unless some 
strange chance, such as revealed some of those in the 
Klondike and elsewhere, should lead daring and ambi- 
tious miners to the places where they rest. 

The taking of the yellow metal from the ledges is 
known comprehensively as quartz mining, and the pro- 
cesses by which it is done are varied according to local 
conditions. 

Ages have elapsed since the deposit of the gold in 
the rock ledges, and the forces of nature have proved 
themselves more active and persistent in extracting the 
precious metal than the host of hungry, anxious miners 
will ever be. As time passed the action of the water 
and other agencies on the rock masses caused them to 
crumble and liberate the exposed treasure. This gold, 
once free, has been carried to lower altitudes and de- 
posited in the canons, gulches, flats, and river bars from 



METHODS PURSUED. J2 ~ 

the mountains to the sea. The gathering of this loose, 
drifted gold is what is known as placer mining. 

In Alaska, thus far, vein or quartz mining has been 
attempted only on the coast. In the Yukon districts 
placer mining is the only form in use. This is due to 
various causes. The main obstacle up to the present 
time has been the cost of labor, which, in the interior, 
very rarely gets below $15 a day, and often exceeds 
that figure. Then, again, vein mining requires the trans- 
portation and erection of costly and heavy machinery, 
which, in a country as poorly provided with transporta- 
tion facilities as is the interior of Alaska, would involve 
untold expense. There is every reason to believe that 
the interior is richly endowed with gold quartz, and with 
the development of the country will probably come the 
development of this feature of gold mining. This has 
been the history of the California fields — first the placer 
and then the veins, and history will probably repeat itself. 
The sequence is a natural one. Man will surely seek 
the source of his supplies, whatever they may be, sooner 
or later. 

The usual methods pursued in placer mining are very 
simple, Even the most improved process, though saving 
much time and labor, is still not an intricate one. The 
specific gravity of gold is much greater than that of any 
rock, gravel, or earth with which it is found. It is many 
centuries since man discovered this fact, and upon it all 
the methods of extraction are based. The gold-bearing 
gravels, sands, and muds are turned into a receptacle 



j 2 a USE OF THE " PAN." 

of some kind when with the aid of water the precious 
metal is worked to the bottom, the lighter substances 
removed, and the treasure revealed. 

The most common implement among placer miners is 
the "pan." It costs only a few cents, and with it any 
man in a rich district can make fair wages every day, 
and many a lucky one has turned a fortune out of it. 
This receptacle closely resembles the ordinary milk-pan. 
It holds usually about six quarts, and is made of heavy 
tin or zinc. The miner goes to the gravel banks along 
the streams, where deposits of precious metal are be- 
lieved to be, and fills his pan. Conveying the material 
to the water, he selects a place where there is little or 
no current, immerses his pan entirely in the water, and 
then shakes the gravel in the pan thoroughly under 
the water. The pan is held with both hands, and so 
shaken that the gravel is given a circular motion, 
two or three motions being sufficient to precipitate 
the gold to the bottom of the pan. The pan, still 
beneath the surface of the water, is then held so that 
the outer edge dips downward at an angle of ten or 
fifteen degrees, and the gravel is made to slowly slide 
out of the pan by a backward and forward movement, 
care being taken, after a portion of the gravel has been 
expelled, to again give the pan the circular motion, so 
as to be sure that the gold is kept at the bottom. Not 
more than a half-minute is required to get rid of the 
gravel, and there will be nothing left in the pan but a 
little "black sand" (magnetic iron), which always accom- 



COLORS FOUND. 



127 



panies gold in gravel, and whatever particles of gold 
were contained in the gravel. The pieces or specks of 
gold are then easily seen, and by their number or quality 
the prospector judges somewhat as to the wages he can 
make by washing the gravel. The specks of gold are 
called " colors " by the old hand. A very few of these 
welcome " colors " in a single pan will demonstrate to 
the miner the value of the gravel in which he is prospect- 
ing. If he is a poor man or lacks energy he will proba- 
bly continue to use the pan like thousands of others, 
putting the few bits of yellow metal away in bags and 
bottles day after day, until he has by laborious effort 
gleaned enough to satisfy him or worked out the gravel 
in that location. 

But the energetic miner uses the pan only by way of 
experiment. Once having found the " colors " with the 
aid of that crude implement, he turns to other methods 
to develop his find. Next after the pan in the way of 
invention came the " rocker." It is not unlike the crude 
bed in which our grandparents slept as babies. It is a 
box on rockers, about four feet long, two feet wide, and 
several inches in depth, with the upper end elevated so 
that the water will pass through freely. A hopper, or 
riddle box, with perforated sheet-iron bottom, occupies 
the upper half. Under this is an apron of cloth or sheet- 
iron, sloping downward toward the upper end. Two 
cleats are nailed across the bottom, one in the middle 
and one at the lower end. The riddle box being filled 
with auriferous dirt from the bank, the miner rocks the 



i 2 g The sluicE-box. 

cradle, pouring water in meanwhile to dissolve the mass. 
The latter is carried through the perforations upon the 
apron and thence down over the bottom of the "rocker" 
to the lower end and out into the stream. The gold, 
being heavy, is lodged behind the cleats or " riffles," and 
there the miner gathers them and repeats the operation. 
The finer particles of gold are often lodged on the apron, 
and this is frequently washed in a bucket and the metal 
taken from the bottom. 

After the rocker came the "Long Tom," which is a 
rough trough ten or twelve feet long, narrow at the 
upper end and wider at the lower. It is placed on an 
incline. It has an iron plate on the bottom which is per- 
forated so that the gold will drop through in the washing 
process. This invention, it will be readily seen, is a 
development of the rocker. 

The sluice-box was the next step taken by miners. 
The one who has found " pay-dirt " and desires to get 
the gold to the mint as quickly and in as large quantities 
as possible, soon drops his pan and rocker and turns to 
the sluice. The "sluice-box" may be constructed of three 
boards twelve feet long and one foot wide ; one board 
forming the bottom and two the sides of the box — sim- 
ply a long, narrow, open box or trough. The box must 
be set on such a grade (usually five or six inches higher 
at the head of the box than at the foot or" tail") that the 
water running through will carry off quickly the stones, 
dirt, and general debris. Upon the bottom of the box 
are placed " riffles," made of long, narrow strips or 



HOW CONSTRUCTED. 



129 



boards or of small poles, which permit the gravel to run 
over them, but into which the heaviest materials, in- 
cluding the " black sand" and gold will settle and remain 
secure. The " riffles" are practically slats made into a 
frame and wedged or nailed to the bottom of the box so 
that they will not rise in the water. The water neces- 
sary to run the sluice-box must be brought into it from 
a point above, so that grade sufficient to bring a steady 
flow of water and allow for the increased grade of the 
box will be secured. The water is usually conducted by 
what are termed "lead-boxes," made similar to the sluice- 
box itself. Water enough, say three or four inches deep 
in the box, with a five-inch grade, to carry off quickly 
the gravel shoveled into it, is necessary for good and 
rapid work. After the miner has shoveled into his box 
what he considers a good day's work he then turns off 
nearly all the water and takes up his riffles. Water 
enough is left running to still carry off the bulk of the 
dirt, sand, and small gravel that has become packed in 
the riffles, leaving nothing behind on the bottom of the 
box save the gold, some sand, and perhaps a few peb- 
bles. The water is then entirely shut off, and everything 
left in the box is carefully and thoroughly swept into a 
pan. It is then a simple matter to pan this residue down 
to the clean gold, and if the miner finds that he has, say, 
half a teaspoonful of gold, he is making considerably 
more than living wages. 

In constructing the sluice-box care should be taken to 
have the bottom-board perfectly sound; that is, free 



j, IMPROVED METHODS. 

from knots or cracks — even a nail-hole in the bottom 
would be sure to lose a large portion of the gold. After the 
side-boards are firmly nailed on, even if the box seems 
perfectly tight, the side seams should be strongly calked 
with old cotton raes. It is well to have the bottom- 
board planed, that it may be swept easily, for fine gold 
adheres so closely to a rough board that it is almost im- 
possible to sweep it off. The best thing to sweep the 
box with is a brush made of split bamboo or cane, that 
may be purchased in the mining towns. 

In many cases there is deposited behind the riffles 
a fine black sand, which is magnetic iron ore. In order 
to separate the gold from this a small quantity of quick- 
silver is placed behind the cleats. The quicksilver is 
useful also in holding many particles of " flour gold " so 
minute that otherwise they might be lost. The sluice- 
box was for a long time by far the most important con- 
trivance in placer mining, and is still in common use, 
though here and there money and brains have combined 
to bring about more satisfactory methods. Even where 
the latter have been adopted the sluice-box is called 
into service to work over the " tailings " of previous 
operations, that name being applied to dirt that has once 
been worked and deposited by the water after leaving 
the "tail end " of a sluice, rocker, flume, 'etc. Sluices, 
often called flumes, are sometimes several hundred, and 
even thousand, feet in length. Often it is necessary to 
elevate the dirt in what are known as " dry diggings," or 
to carry it to some distance to a point where water 



HYDRAULIC OPERATIONS. ^ 

can be used to advantage, and various devices are 
adopted, the most common being large buckets swung 
upon cranes. In some places where hydraulic mining is 
not practicable, " drifting " is resorted to. A tunnel is 
run into the hill and " drifts " are run from it, the dirt 
being brought out for washing, or else a shaft is sunk 
and the dirt sent up to the surface in buckets. In some 
places long series of sluice-boxes may be found con- 
taining thousands of feet of lumber. 

All placer mining is of necessity hydraulic, since water 
is always used to separate the gold from the dirt. But 
the name " hydraulic " is generally used to designate the 
method of washing down auriferous banks by turning on 
them a powerful stream of water, the gold being caught 
in long flumes or ground sluices, through which the muddy 
liquid is made to flow. It is in this form of mining that 
the most capital is invested in the placer operations. 

Often the flumes and tunnels of the hydraulic systems, 
which sometimes pass through hills and even mountains, 
are paved with stone, instead of wood, the stone catch- 
ing the fine gold better than the wooden riffles. Stone 
flumes are not so easily robbed by sluice-box thieves as 
the wooden ones, and thus operate as a partial protec- 
tion against the operations of midnight miners. The 
work of making a "clean-up" by taking up the stone 
bottom, removing the amalgam, and relaying the stones 
again, takes more time, but the wear and tear on long 
wooden flumes by the heavy rocks carried through them 
by the strong current is an offset to this, and clean-ups 



! , 2 MACHINERY USED. 

are not made very often, in some mines only twice a 
year. The hydraulic system has developed through a 
series of years, beginning in 1852, in Nevada City, Cab, 
when a miner turned a small canvas hose against the 
bank with a pressure of sixty feet of water, and reaching 
a point where water is forced through a nozzle ten inches 
in diameter with a pressure of 500 feet, a resistless tor- 
rent thrown upwards of 300 feet. Not many of these 
powerful streams are in use, a nozzle of from three to 
six inches and a pressure of not more than 400 feet 
being - found the most serviceable and economical. The 
water is carried down into the mine from some elevated 
point in huge pipes of boiler iron, strongly riveted to 
resist the tremendous pressure, and is discharged 
through machines known as " monitors " or " little 
giants." The machine is double-jointed at the base, 
and can be depressed or elevated or turned to either 
side at the will of the operator, who has thus perfect 
control of the stream discharged from it, and may direct 
it at any portion of the bank desired. The force of a 
column of water 400 feet high, compressed from an 
eighteen-inch pipe to a six-inch orifice, is not easy to 
realize. The torrent rushes forth with a roar, and hurls 
itself in an almost solid mass against the bank, which 
melts as though it were a heap of snow. A discharge of 
1,000 miners' inches of water is not unusual. This is 
equivalent to 1,500 cubic feet per minute, or 7,000,000 
gallons in ten hours. At the estimated average this 
would excavate nearly 3,000 cubic yards of earth. 



AN ESSENTIAL FEATURE. r , - 

When the mine is not so situated that a flume can be 
built along the ground with a proper fall for the " tail- 
ings," it becomes necessary to tunnel through a hill for 
an outlet. Some of these tunnels are necessarily very 
long and expensive, and it is in such enterprises that 
large capital is required in hydraulic mining. The 
tunnel is paved for a sluice, and often a long flume 
extends beyond it for the same purpose. Much inge- 
nuity has been displayed in constructing flumes so as to 
save as much of the fine gold passing through them as 
possible, and yet much of it is carried away. This is 
shown in a few favorable localities by persons who have 
constructed flumes in the beds of streams into which 
tailings are discharged, by which they take profitable 
toll for letting the tailings again pass over hundreds of 
feet of riffles. 

The discharge of tailings into streams flowing into the 
Sacramento Valley has caused much trouble in Califor- 
nia, and the detritus, debids, or " slickins " has filled up 
the beds of the streams, covered the fertile bottom lands 
with a sterile deposit, and produced more frequent floods 
and overflow of low lands. In Oregon and Washington 
this trouble has not occurred, since the topography is 
such that the tailings from hydraulic mines are not de- 
posited on agricultural lands, and do not fill up the beds 
of streams running through them. 

An essential feature of a hydraulic mine is a water 
ditch running either from some unfailing stream or 
natural or artificial reservoir. Some of these ditches 



j -. WATER RIGHTS DEFINED. 

are many miles in length, and are carried for part of the 
distance through tunnels or across gulches in high 
wooden flumes. Some of the reservoirs constructed to 
supply the ditches hold nearly a billion cubic feet of 
water. The construction of such large ditches and reser- 
voirs calls for the investment of much capital. In places 
these ditches are constructed by companies and the water 
sold to the miners using it; also to farmers for irrigating 
purposes when favorably situated. The capacity of 
mining ditches varies from 500 to 10,000 inches of water. 
An inch varies in different localities, but the usual stand- 
ard is the quantity that will flow in twenty-four hours 
through an aperture one inch square, with the water six 
inches above the point of discharge. This equals 16,725 
gallons. 

The courts of the Pacific Coast have firmly established 
the principle of absolute property in water. By their 
decisions, given after much long and expensive litigation, 
they have affirmed the principle that a water right of a 
definite number of inches may be located on any stream 
where prior rights do not exist, and that the quantity 
located may be taken out, even to the draining of the 
original stream, may be conveyed away, sold, and never 
returned to the original channel. One right may be 
located above another, but only for such surplus water 
as was not located by the prior claim. This doctrine 
has been found as necessary in irrigating districts as in 
mining sections. It is a complete reversal of the old 
common-law doctrine of riparian rights, established under 



MODIFICATION NECESSARY. j ^ r 

conditions far different from those prevailing on the 
Pacific Coast. 

Most of the hydraulic mines are worked in the chan- 
nels of an extinct system of rivers, running in places at 
right angles with the present water-courses. This fact 
was not disclosed for many years, but as the working 
progressed it was seen that the auriferous gravel, or 
cement, occupied well-defined channels running tortu- 
ously along in the usual manner of water-courses. The 
conclusion has been reached that these were pre-glacial 
streams, and that since the ages in which they accumu- 
lated their present store of gold the topographical con- 
tour of the mountains has been completely changed and 
the present water-courses been opened up. It may be 
said that these ancient channels have only been tapped 
here and there, and that hundreds of miles of these 
auriferous banks yet await the dissolving touch of water. 

While placer mining must necessarily be conducted 
in much the same general way the world over, the con- 
ditions which are presented in the Klondike country 
make some modifications necessary. The extreme cold 
of most of the year in that latitude brings with it obsta- 
cles which are hard to overcome. Man will overcome 
them, because he knows that gold is there, and because 
he wants it, but at present he overcomes them slowly 
and laboriously. His reward is great enough, however, 
in many cases to make him forget the hardships. 

In addition to the dangers to health the great difficulty 
that the miner has to contend with is the fact that the 



136 



VALUE OF EXPLOSIVES. 



ground is frozen solid nearly all the year, and even in 
summer thaws only a few inches. This makes it neces- 
sary to thaw the ground artificially, and this is done by 
"burning." Fires are built on the surface and the 
ground is thawed a few inches beneath the surface. This 
is then dug out; another fire is built in the hole, and this 
process is continued until bedrock is reached. Then 
fires are built against the side of the shaft, and drifts 
and tunnels are thawed out. All the dirt thus taken 
out is piled outside until the stream opens in the spring. 
Then the sluice-boxes are set up and the winter's dig- 
gings washed out. Thus a miner is enabled to keep 
busy about all the year. 

This method of burning out a shaft and tunnels is by 
no means new, for it has been carried on for many years 
in the basins of the Amoor and Lena Rivers in Siberia, 
where the conditions are very similar to those in the 
Klondike region. Placer mining in Alaska really differs 
from placer mining in warmer climates only in that the dirt 
has to be thawed out, and that water for washing can be 
obtained there only a month or two in each year. And 
even when bedrock is reached it is in many cases filled 
with cracks and seams which are rich in gold and well 
worth the digging out. As to the value of explosives in this 
frozen soil authorities differ. The Mining and Scientific 
Press said recently that they can be used effectively, 
while the Mining and Engineering Journal, in speaking 
of the Siberian mines, where the conditions are similar, 
says their effect is simply to mat the ground together 



WEALTH UNTOUCHED. T „ >, 

1 37 

harder. For this same reason, says the latter journal, 
the ground cannot be dug with a pick and shovel until 
thawed out. As is almost invariably the case in cold cli- 
mates accidents have been somewhat frequent in Alaska 
in the use of explosives. The sticks of dynamite which 
the miner uses in hrs work freeze easily, and in thawing 
them out, great care must be used. They are often 
placed in a pan near the fire or in the ovens of the crude 
stoves used by the miners. Carelessness, in a number 
of instances, has led to their explosion. 

Scientific men in the United States and abroad 
were by no means surprised when the stories of 
great gold finds first came out of Alaska. For years 
geologists, mineralogists and mining experts have been 
studying Alaska and making frequent trips both along 
its fring-ed coast and far into the interior. The discover- 
ies they have made— geological, mineralogical and 
geographical — have all pointed toward the eventual lay- 
ing bare of rich mineral deposits. It is now the consen- 
sus of belief amonor these men that the discoveries have 
only begun, that the wedge has only entered. 

Professor S. F. Emmons, of the United States Geolog- 
ical Survey, recently said : — 

"The real mass of golden wealth in Alaska remains 
as yet untouched. It lies in the virgin rocks, from which 
the particles found in the river gravels now being washed 
by the Klondike miners have been torn by the erosion 
of streams. These particles, being heavy, have been 
deposited by the streams which carried the lighter matter 
onward to the ocean, thus forming, by gradual accumuia- 



j^g GOLD-BEARING GRAVEL. 

tion, a sort of auriferous concentrate. Many of the bits, 
especially in certain localities, are big enough to be called 
nuggets. 

MONEY PICKED OUT OF THE DIRT. 

"In spots the gravels are so rich that, as we have all 
heard, many ounces of the yellow metal are obtained 
from the washing of a single panful. That is what is 
making the people so wild — the prospect of picking 
money out of the dirt by the handful literally. 

" But all this is merely the skimming of grease from the 
pot ; the soup remains, and precious rich soup it is. The 
bulk of the wealth is in the rocks of the hills, waiting 
only for proper machinery to take it out. For you must 
remember that the gold was originally stored in veins of 
the rocks, which are of an exceedingly ancient formation. 
Nobody can say how many millions of years ago the 
metal was put there, but it must have been an enormous- 
ly long time back. 

" The streams wore away the rocks, carrying gold with 
them, and this process continued for ages, making im- 
mense deposits of rich, gold-bearing gravels. Eventually 
these deposits were themselves transformed into rock — 
a sort of conglomerate in which pebbles, small and big, 
are mixed with what was once sand. To-day the strata 
composed of this conglomerate are of immense extent 
and unknown thickness. The formation closely resem- 
bles that of the auriferous ' banket ' or pudding stone of 
the South African gold fields ; but the South African 
pudding stone was in far remote antiquity a sea beach, 
whereas the Alaskan formation is a deposit made by 
streams, as I have said. 



ONLY THE FIRST BITE. j - g 

"In a later epoch the stream continued to gnaw away 
at the hills, bringing down more gold and leaving it be- 
hind in the gravels of their bottoms. It is these com- 
paratively modern rivers which are responsible for the 
pay dirt of the Klondike district and of all that region. 
Naturally, because it was easily got at and worked, the 
miners have struck this surface alluvium first. The 
streams at various times have followed different courses, 
and it is in the gravels of the dry and disused channels 
that the gold miners dig with such fabulous profit. 

A GOLDEN FEAST. 

''You will observe from what I have said that the gold 
of that region exists under three widely different condi- 
tions — in the gravels, in the conglomerate or pudding 
stone and in the ancient rocks of the hills. When the 
modern stream deposits, now being worked, are used up, 
the miner can tackle the conglomerate, which represents 
the gravels of ages ago. Finally, when they are pn> 
vided with the requisite machinery, they will be in a po- 
sition to attack the masses of yellow wealth that are 
stored in the veins of the mountains. At present we 
can hardly consider that the first bite has been taken of 
the golden feast which Alaska offers to hungry man." 

Last summer the government sent a commission of 
men from the Geological Survey into Alaska. At the 
head of this party was Josiah Edward Spurr. He has 
recently made his report. He says, as to the Forty 
Mile district, that, in the latter part of 1887, Franklin 
Gulch was struck, and the first year the creek is esti. 



j^o OUTPUT OF THE MINES. 

mated to have produced $4,000. Ever since it has been 
a constant payer. The character of the gold there is 
nuggety, masses of $5 weight being very common. The 
yield the first year after the discovery of Forty Mile has 
been variously estimated at from $75,000 to $150,000, 
but $60,000 probably covers the production. 

The discovery of Davis Creek and a stampede from 
Franklin Gulch followed in the spring of 1888. In 1891, 
gold mining in the interior, as well as on the coast, at 
Silver Bow basin and Treadwell, received a great im- 
petus. The event of 1892 was the discovery of Miller 
Creek. In the spring of 1893 many new claims were 
staked, and it is estimated that eighty men took out 
$100,000. Since then Miller Creek has been the heav- 
iest producer of the Forty Mile district, and, until 
recently, of the whole Yukon. Its entire length lies in 
British possessions. 

The output for 1893, as given by the mint director for 
the Alaskan creeks, all but Miller Creek being in Ameri- 
can possessions, was $198,000, with a mining population 
of 196. The total amount produced by the Yukon 
placers, in 1894, was double that of the previous year, 
and was divided between the two districts. In 1895, the 
output had doubled again. 

Forty Mile district, in the summer of 1896, is described 
in the report as looking as if it had seen its best days, 
and, unless several new creeks are discovered, he pre- 
dicts that it will lose its old position. 

The Birch Creek district was, last summer, in a flour- 
ishing condition. Most of the gulches were then run- 



STAMPEDE TO THE KLONDIKE. j^j 

ning, miners were working on double shifts, night and 
day, and many large profits were reported. On Masta- 
don Creek, the best producer, over 300 miners were at 
work, many expecting to winter in the gulch. 

As to hydraulic mining, the report says : 

" Some miners have planned to work this and other 
good ground supposed to exist under the deep covering 
of moss and gravel in the wide valley of the Mammoth 
and Crooked Creeks, by hydraulicking, the water to be 
obtained by tapping Miller and Mastadon Creeks near 
the head. It will be several years before the scheme 
can be operated, because both of the present gulches 
are paying well and will continue to do so at least five 
years." 

"With the announcement of gold in the winter of 
1896-97," says the report on the Klondike district, "there 
was a genuine stampede to the new region. Forty Mile 
was almost deserted. But 350 men spent the winter on 
Klondike, in the gulches and at the new town of Daw- 
son. The more important parts of the district are on 
Bonanza and Hunker Creeks. There is plenty of room 
for many more prospectors and miners, for the gulches 
and creeks, which have shown good prospects, are 
spread over an area of seven hundred square miles. 

ALASKAN GOLD PRODUCTION FOR 1 896. 

"The estimated Alaskan gold production for 1896, 
made by the Spurr report, is $1,400,000. The report 
points out the difficulties in the way of speedy develop- 
ment of the country. First, the climate, with its short 



ja 2 FUTURE OF ALASKA. 

summer season and long, cold winter. Prospecting is 
done in the winter more and more every winter because 
frozen ground renders traveling over the swampy, moss- 
covered country more easy, and the miner is thus able to 
begin work with the first spring thaw. 

LABOR AT A PREMIUM. 

"Whatever Alaska maybe in the future, it is not now 
self-supporting agriculturally. Moose, caribou and hare 
are variable in quantity, abundant one time and disap- 
pearing from the region for twelve months at a time. 
Ten dollars a day is the general wage paid, twelve dollars 
for a day of ten hours being paid in some of the more re- 
mote gulches. In winter the pay for labor is from five to 
eight dollars per day of six hours. Many times the miners 
have been at the point of starvation, and there has 
hardly been a winter when they have not been put on a 
ration basis. Universal suffrage is given, and all have 
an equal vote. Penalties include : For stealing, banish^ 
ment from the country, in some cases also whipping ; 
threatening with weapons, the same ; murders, hanging ; 
but there have been no murders so far." 



&KK:SM«V-K' 



WMmjfm 




CHAPTER VII. 

ALASKAN QUARTZ MINES AND MINING. 

The location of gold deposits on the coast of the southeast — The Great Treadwell 
Mine on Douglass Island — The largest quartz mill in the world — Thousands of 
dollars a day from low-grade ores — Other mines of the section — The quartz veins 
of the Klonkike country — Large amounts of capital being gathered to work 
them — The rich promise of the future — The rules which the prospector must 
follow in his search for hidden treasure — Methods employed in working the 
golden veins — Processes of the rock-breaker, stamp-mill, and concentrator. 

THE progress made in the location of gold deposits 
on the southeastern coast constitutes a separate 
chapter in Alaskan mining history. It is recorded 
that Doroshin, in 1848, made small finds of gold near the 
present site of Fort Kenai, on the Kakni River, on the 
Kenai Peninsula, far to the westward of Juneau. A few 
years later he continued his prospecting in these re- 
gions, but meeting with indifferent success and encoun- 
tering the opposition of the Russian-American Corn- 
pan)'', which at that time controlled the country, he 
abandoned the work. Tradition has it that even before 
the days of Doroshin an emissary of the Russian Gov- 
ernment found gold on the northern end of Baronov 
Island, upon which Sitka is situated. Pressure was 
brought to bear upon him by the then all-powerful 
trading company, and his success was never brought to 
light. It was the constant policy of the Russian- 
American Company to keep out the white man, as it 
10 I45 



146 



THE TREADWELL MINE. 



was feared that the development of the natural re- 
sources of the country would in time have a depressing 
influence upon the trade in furs, skins, etc., upon which 
the company depended. This same policy was pursued 
by the other companies trading in these parts. 

The next find in southeast Alaska was in the imme- 
diate vicinity of Sitka, in the year 1873. This caused 
the first interest to be taken in prospecting in Alaska. 
Miners from British Columbia crossed the border in 
great numbers, and in 1880 the yellow metal was 
brought to light in the immediate vicinity of Juneau. 
In fact, Joseph Juneau, after whom the village was 
named, was the first man to show that gold occurred 
in Alaska in any considerable quantities. After the dis- 
covery of gold in the cliffs above Juneau, came the loca- 
tion of the great Treadwell claim on Douglass Island, 
about two miles from Juneau and beyond Gastineau 
Channel. It was in 1881 that miners first set foot in this 
region. The island itself was named by Vancouver for 
his friend, the Bishop of Salisbury. Among the early 
claims were two owned in partnership by men named 
Bean and Matthews. They became indebted to John 
Treadwell, a San Francisco builder, for a loan of $150, 
and put up their rights on Douglass Island as security. 
Failing to make payment, the property passed into the 
hands of John Treadwell. He was not any too well 
pleased with his bargain, but soon became convinced 
that the land could be worked for its gold with profit. 
He bought out a neighboring claim held by a character 



one Million dollars. I4 7 

well known about Juneau, who rejoiced in the sobriquet 
of " French Pete." The latter received $300. Tread- 
well associated with himself four other men, among them 
Senator John P. Jones, of Nevada, and active work was 
begun on the development of the property. 

Mr. Treadwell stood on the ground which afterward 
became the site of one of the most remarkable quartz 
operations in the world, and fought the squatters who 
insisted on washing the surface for gold until the organic 
act secured his title. Since then $1,000,000 have been 
expended on the works. Many thousands were spent 
in constructing a ditch eighteen miles long to bring the 
necessary water to the ground, and over $300,000 was 
involved in various experiments in improving the chlor- 
ination process. The great mill of 240 stamps remains 
now the largest of its kind in the world, and has never 
stopped, night or day, save for repairs, since it was 
started. Six hundred tons of ore are milled every day, 
at an average profit of $4 each, so that it can be seen 
that many good-sized fortunes have passed into the 
ipockets of its fortunate owners. The ore is quarried in 
ithree large open pits, and, falling thence through ore- 
shoots to cars in three tunnels below, is moved by gravity 
ithrough each process. The heavy smoke from the Tread- 
well chlorination works has killed vegetation for a mile 
up and down the island. 

While the ore from the Treadwell is of such a low grade 
that in most places with the ordinary processes it would 
not be worked at all, it is present in such quantities that 



148 



BEAR'S NEST MINE. 



many years must elapse before the stream of riches 
ceases to flow from this one property. The experience 
gained from the Treadwell property in working these 
low-grade ores will in time be of inestimable value to 
other operators in similar fields. 

The Mexican mine adjoining the Treadwell on the east 
is owned by the same company. Here 60 stamps are at 
work. In the two properties 175 men are employed. 

Another important mine of that locality is the Bear's 
Nest, which, owing to disagreements among its English 
and German owners, is not being worked at present. 
The promise of its future built up the neighboring town 
of Douglass City. 

Many mining experts who have examined the enor- 
mous gold deposit on Douglass Island think it is a freak, 
a chimney of quartz which is not paralleled elsewhere on 
the island. But the most experienced engineers confess 
themselves puzzled by the geological formation of 
Alaska. It seems to be unlike any other. The general 
formation is slate, which, with granite, holds the quartz 
veins, but the latter are often broken and confused. Dr. 
George M. Dawson says in a paper 1 on the subject: " It 
presents none of the characteristics of an ordinary lode 
or vein, being without any parallel or arrangement of its 
constituents and showing no such coarse crystalline 
structure as a lode of large dimensions might be ex- 
pected to exhibit." 

Miners' wa^es ' m these mines are not large, Indians 
getting $2 and white men $3 per day. 



SILVER BOW BASIN. j^g 

Sixty miles north of Juneau on Berners Bay are the 
works of the Berners Bay Mining & Milling Company, 
which is operating the Comet mine at Seward City. This 
mine, which is owned by a syndicate including several 
members of the Rothschild family and Mr. D. O. Mills, 
produced $2,500,000 in 1896. 

Some operations have been carried on in the valley of 
the Stickine River, several hundred miles below Juneau. 
As early as 1861 gold was discovered there, and by 1874 
several thousand miners were at work. It was esti- 
mated that the yield from the placer mines that year was 
more than a million dollars. Later, when the placer 
claims seemed exhausted, and expensive machinery was 
needed to operate in the quartz, many of the miners 
disappeared, and only a few are at work there now. 

In the Silver Bow Basin, at the head of Gold Creek, 
and near Juneau, extensive mining operations are being 
carried on. The deep bowl here has long received the 
washings from the great mountain walls which sur- 
round it, and thousands of dollars were taken from the 
placer grounds annually, until they were worked as low 
as the water system would permit. Since then the 
Silver Bow Basin Mining Company has bought many of 
the claims, as well as quartz claims, in the mountains 
around, and running a tunnel three thousand feet in 
length in from Charlotte Basin below, has succeeded in 
keeping a big stamp-mill busy with the ore obtained. 
A number of other companies are also engaged in 
similar enterprises. 



ISO 



QUARTZ VEINS UNTOUCHED. 



These are some of the more important of the gold 
discoveries in the southeastern coast section, but the 
yellow metal has been found in varying quantities at a 
large number of other points, and lies hidden in many 
places where man has never sought it. In a number of 
places not specially mentioned it is even now being 
mined at a large profit. 

The quartz veins of the newly-discovered gold coun-_ 
try have as yet been almost untouched. The location 
of a few are already known, and, judging from the rich 
deposits of the placer grounds, many more will in the 
course of time be discovered. Just at present the trans- 
portation facilities do not admit of the carrying in of 
necessary implements and machinery for the quartz pro- 
cesses, but undoubtedly, the near future will see these 
difficulties overcome. Man has the habit of securing 
gold in some way when once his eyes are fastened on it. 
Already there is a long list of companies which have 
been formed, representing immense sums in capital from 
all over the world, to work in the new fields. Some of 
them no doubt for the time being - will confine them- 
selves to placer ground, but few of them will be satisfied 
to stop short of the big quartz lodes which are known to 
exist. Some of the more important of these companies 
and their capital are as follows : — Cudahy-Healy Yukon 
& Klondike Mining Co., $25,000,000; Boe & Barnes, 
$950,000; Alaska Syndicate Co., $400,000; Acme De- 
velopment Co., $150,000; Alaska Co-operative Co., 
$100,000; Yukon-Cariboo Co., $5,000,000; New York 



MINING COMPANIES. 



151 



& Alaska Gold Exploration Co., $1,000,000; Norse- 
American Gold Co., $750,000 ; Alaska Klondike Co., 
$600,000 ; Gold Syndicate, $5,000,000 ; Kootenay- 
Cariboo Co. (Ltd.), $2,500,000; Exploration Syndicate, 
$100,000; Philadelphia & Alaska Gold Mining Syn- 
dicate, $500,000; Alaska Co-operative Develop- 
ment Co., $200,000; Northwest Mining & Trading 
Co., $5,000,000. 

In nearly every city of any size throughout the land 
companies are being formed. Colorado Springs has the 
Alaska-Klondike Company, with a million-dollar capital, 
and William P. Bonbright as president. Columbus, O., 
reports a $500,000 company, with a West Virginia char- 
ter ; this company will charter several ships, load them 
at Montreal with goods and machinery likely to be 
needed in the Alaska gold fields, thus escaping customs 
duty, and sail around the Horn with them. They will 
also engage in mining, but trading is the principal object. 
Seattle reports that $1,000,000 has been invested in in- 
corporated companies, with ever so much more in irregu- 
larly organized concerns. Victoria, B. C, reports that it 
has been in the Klondike business for a long time. At 
the last session of the British Columbia Legislature four 
companies were chartered and liberal grants of land 
secured from the unsuspecting legislators. In other 
places the story is the same. Money that has been tied 
up with studious care during the hard times is being put 
freely forth to snare the treasures of Alaska. 

There can be no settled rules laid down for the pros- 



152 



MECHANICAL ACCIDENTS. 



pector in seach of gold veins. Conditions are different 
in each new section discovered, The best-known laws 
of the geological world have their exceptions, but there 
are some general principles which the seeker for gold- 
bearing rock will do well to study. 

In every quartz mining region there are fissure sys- 
tems which are more or less regular, much depending 
upon the kinds of rock in which they are formed. The 
miner or prospector soon finds that very important rela- 
tions exist between dikes and other bodies of igneous 
rock and ore deposits. Whatever the nature of the 
stratified rocks, sections of the country where no bodies of 
eruptive rocks are found are but poor in minerals. This 
is on account of the dikes opening a passage during the 
process of their upheaval from those deep-seated regions 
whence rise mineral-charged vapors and emanations from 
metals in fiery depths, therefore the part they play in lode 
formation is more mechanical than chemical. They merely 
open a passage upward from nature's secret laboratory, in 
unknown and unknowable subterranean depths. 

The fissures in which the mineralized veins are formed 
are what might be termed mechanical accidents, as they 
owe their existence to the yielding of the superincum- 
bent country rock at the point of least resistance at the 
time of the upheaval. The fissures thus formed, the 
process of filling commences, some doubtless affording a 
better and more free passage than others to the ascend- 
ing mineral-charged vapors. 

The veins spoken of by miners as being " contact 



SECONDARY FISSURES. j - ^ 

veins " are usually such as are in contact with some in- 
truded rock on the surface, being situated at the junction 
of stratified rocks with those of igneous origin, either in 
the shape of mountain masses or as narrow dikes. Other 
veins are at the surface in slate or other stratified rock, 
with no igneous rocks visible in the immediate vicinity. 
The lodes found so situated would not be spoken of by 
a miner as " contact veins," as they have the same rock 
for both walls. At a lower depth below the sedimentary 
rock granite, diorite, or some other igneous rock, will 
be reached, when the lode will be found to be a contact 
vein lying between the intruded igneous rock and the 
superincumbent stratified rock. Thus it will be seen 
that all lodes are doubtless contact veins at some point 
below the surface, but in most cases at a greater depth 
than is likely to be attained by the miner. Were the 
overlying sedimentary rock sufficiently tough and yield- 
ing to bear the strain of upheaval without cracking 
there would be no veins thus formed except contact 
veins, as all would lie between the uplifted stratified rock 
and the intruded igneous dike. 

The secondary fissures are the result of fractures pro- 
duced in the stratified rocks while they are being lifted 
during the elevation of mountain masses of granite, or 
the upheaval of dikes of other igneous rocks, and they 
have both walls of the same kind of rock. The real 
contact fissures would be found above, at the point where 
the stratified rock abuts uoon the intruded igneous rock. 
This contact fissure might be very small, merely a part- 



i54 



TRUE FISSURE VEIN. 



ing between the two kinds of rock, filled with crushed 
material from the walls, while below, in the overlying, 
stratified rock, would be found very much larger fissures,; 
and in some one of them — that having the best open- 
ings and most favorable situation — would be found the 
principal lode formation. In the other parallel fissures 
would be found other veins, all exhibiting" the character- 
istics of the principal lode. 

The regularity and smoothness of the fissures depend 
much upon the character of the country rock. If the 
overlying rocks do not cleave well and regularly the 
lodes found in them will be bunchy, as when bodies of I 
serpentine lie in the line of the fissures. Fissures are 
generally very much more jagged and irregular on the 
cross sections of slate or slaty rocks than those that run 
parallel to the cleavage, and as the fissures are so are 
the lodes with which they are filled. The broader veins 
are so much the more regular is their course. The 
broadest veins are usually the longest. The greater the 
length of a vein the greater the depth to which it will 
probably extend. 

A "true fissure" vein is one which traverses the 
country rock independently of its stratification, cutting, 
through slaty rocks across the course of their cleavage. 
These veins sometimes cut across dikes of intruded 
igneous rocks. They are supposed to have been pro- 
duced by deep-seated plutonic forces, while contact veins 
and their accompanying groups of parallel veins are the 
result of forces acting: nearer the surface. 



"CHIMNEYS" OR "SHOOTS." j-- 

There are contact veins which lie between two kinds 
of igneous rocks. A dike of diorite may be upheaved 
in such a position as to form a contact with granite, or 
with an older dike of diorite or other intruded rock. In 
places where there are parallel groups of veins, as on 
the " mother lode," a diorite dike often forms the foot 
wall of one vein and the hanging wall of another. The 
black slate of that great mineral belt is in one place the 
hanging and in another the foot wall, while in many 
places it forms both walls. 

If the gold comes from any of the wall rocks it must 
be at a great depth, where there is intense heat and great 
chemical action — at a point where all the metals are 
much more abundant than near the surface. The 
nature of the mineral solutions and the metallic vapors 
filling and passing up through the fissures have more to 
do with the character of the vein formed than have the 
wall rocks. 

Mineral veins frequently intersect one another. When 
the intersecting vein fills a fissure in the intersected it 
shows it to be the more recent, the younger of the two. 
Some veins are intimately combined at the point of 
junction, showing them to have been filled at the same 
time. As a rule, the work of filling immediately follows 
the formation of the fissure. A vein intersected by a 
younger vein is generally rich, as it receives a double 
charge of mineralized solutions. 

" Chimneys " or " shoots " of ore in a vein are prob- 
ably owing to a considerable extent to the character of 



156 



SUCCESSION OF PINCHES. 



the fissure at a greater depth. Though open and 
roomy near the top the fissure may be narrow or wholly 
closed at a deeper level, thus permitting the metallic 
vapors to ascend only at certain points. Thus we see 
steam rises in columns along the open fissures of hot 
springs, not in a continuous sheet. Wide places in a 
vein are more favorable to ore formation than narrow 
ones. In narrow places the motion of the ascending 
mineral-bearing solution or vapors is more rapid, there- 
fore not so favorable to the formation of deposits as the 
wider places. This may cause the apparent " pinching 
out " of a vein. At such places no sign of the vein will 
be seen except a seam of clay, but if this is followed it 
is apt to lead to a broad place in the vein, filled with 
both quartz and ore. In some veins — owing to the 
irregular fracture of the rock forming the walls — there 
are found a succession of such pinches. 

It is quite certain that mineral veins have been filled 
by circulation in the fissures in which they are found, of 
heated water, aqueous vapors, and various gases, all 
more or less mineralized. All veins have not been 
formed in the same way nor by means of vapors and 
emanations of the same character. No two veins are 
exactly alike in all respects. Had the veins been filled 
by means of molten matter from below (as many sup- 
pose) their metallic contents would have been the same 
in all parts, and would have been evenly distributed. 
There would have been seen no " bonanzas " or " chim- 
neys " of rich ore, with barren spaces between. There can 



THE WORK OF AGES. j-* 

be nothing found in or about any lode which shows it to 
be the result of a quickly completed process. On the 
contrary, all goes to prove that the formation is the result 
of a long-continued or periodically repeated process, 
with modifications at various times of the chemical con- 
ditions, degrees of heat and pressure, and variations in 
the nature of the mineral solutions or metallic vapors. 
Even the hydrostatic pressure in a column of minerals 
in solution in a fissure may exert a great influence in the 
disposition of ore. What might not be affected at a 
depth of a few hundred or 1,000 feet might be accom- 
plished under the tremendous pressure of 5,000 feet. 
Doubtless most veins were formed at much greater 
depth than we now see them. They have become acces- 
sible to us through the upheaval and the erosion of what 
lay above them. 

Lodes will more commonly be found in the neighbor- 
hood of plutonic rocks — rocks that have solidified be- 
neath the surface — than near volcanic rocks, for the 
reason that lodes of value could only be formed at a 
considerable depth under a solid covering. It is useless 
to look for lodes in sections of a country covered with 
lava and similar volcanic rocks. Paying mineral veins 
are much more likely to be found in the older than more 
recent rocks, whether sedimentary or igneous. They 
are generally to be found in places where dikes of igne- 
ous rocks have been pushed up through the sedimentary 
rocks, either at the point of contact, between two kinds 
of rock, or at no great distance on either side. 



158 



WHAT EXPERIENCE SHOWS. 



In Cornwall almost the whole of the mineral wealth 
occurs within a space of two or three miles on each side 
of a granite and slate contact, but the veins are not 
richest on the immediate line of contact. In Australia 
the richest veins are found when the diorite, and other 
intrusive plutonic rocks, have formed dikes in the strati- 
fied rocks. And we see that in California the most noted 
mines are near dikes of igneous rock. Dikes, not con- 
tinuous on the surface, may continue underground, some 
parts being pushed to a greater height than others at 
the time of their formation. A dike, which is continuous 
at no great distance below the overlying rock, may appear 
on the surface as a series of " humps." These may be 
from half a mile to a mile apart, but from them the pros- 
pector will be able to get the course of the dike. Also, 
where a dike that shows on the surface appears to come 
to an end, the prospector may take its course and be 
guided by it in making explorations, in the sections 
wholly covered by the country rock. The veins lying 
near the line of the dike will generally prove most 
valuable. 

Usually, when a rich quartz vein has been discovered, 
there is a " rush " made for " extensions" on the course 
of the strike of the vein, and at times these locations ex- 
tend for miles. Let the miner who does not reach the 
scene of the discovery in time to locate a first extension 
give no further thought to extensions, but turn his atten- 
tion to a search for a parallel vein. Systems of parallel 
veins, more or less regular, depending upon the nature 



PARALLELS AND EXTENSIONS. j c g 

of the country rock, are found in almost every quartz 
mining district of California. The chances for finding a 
paying parallel vein are often much better than for 
locating the extension of a newly-discovered lode, and, 
as has often happened, a parallel vein may be found 
which will prove richer than the first of the system 
located. 

In California the miner found, when he first turned 
his attention to the quartz veins, that he was poorly 
provided with methods and implements for his task, but 
in the years which have ensued experience and brains 
have solved the problem of wresting the gold from the 
rock, and the operation is now performed, in a well- 
equipped plant, with comparative ease and celerity. 

Prior to i860, quartz mining operations were in an 
experimental stage, but about that time the great lodes, 
which were the source from which the rich deposits of 
the California placer fields came, were discovered, and 
men began mining them seriously. As a rule then, the 
miner blasted and picked out his material with crude 
implements, crushed and pulverized it in a ponderous 
machine, and extracted the gold by amalgamation 
on copper plates. This was an operation on the 
basis of the "free milling" process. But much more 
than half the gold escaped the seeker in the course of 
this operation, and only the richest material would pay 
the expenses of working. Only a small percentage of 
the gold in the average quartz lode is present in a free 
state, and for the rest intricate processes must be used 



j5o native gold. 

to rescue it. Even with present-day methods a consid- 
erable percentage still is lost to the miner. 

Native gold as found in the lodes is never quite pure, 
being almost invariably alloyed with silver and not in- 
frequently it contains small proportions of copper and 
iron. The gold-bearing ores consist chiefly of quartz, 
and in some cases they contain slate, baryta, and talc. 
Occasionally the metal is found in leaf or crystallized 
form between the layers of rocks, but generally it is 
scattered through in small particles, often so minute as 
to be scarcely visible to the naked eye. 

When the vein lies close to the surface, it is the prac- 
tice of the miner to strip the ground from it and attack 
the rock from the top, as far as permissible, but when it 
dips into the earth it is necessary to tunnel or sink a 
shaft to follow it. The underground method is, of 
course, vastly more expensive than the first mentioned. 
The gold-bearing rock being removed from its resting- 
place by the ordinary methods of blasting, is sent to the 
surface in buckets lowered and raised in the larger 
mines by machinery. The appearance of the valuable 
ore is not encouraging. The average man would fail 
often, even with the most careful examination, to detect 
any signs of treasure in the mass. A long and some- 
what expensive process must be gone through with 
before the golden riches will be revealed. 

Rock-breakers and stamps are used first, and then the 
free gold is amalgamated in the battery by various con- 
trivances. After the ore reaches the mill it is weighed. 




Group of Miners and Indians. 




Group of Klondike Gold Miners. 



THE MILLING OPERATION. 



I63 



It is then crushed to the proper size for its reception by 
the stamp machines, and here the milling operation 
proper really begins. When, in the stamp mill, a suitable 
degree of fineness has been reached, the free gold is 
caught by amalgamating it. This operation may be car- 
ried on in the battery box itself or on tables outside, in 
mercury wells, or by special apparatus in pans, or, 
still again, by a combination of some or all these. 
Then the escaping pulp, which in most cases contains 
much the largest proportion of gold, is treated by some 
of the concentration methods to obtain the yellow metaL 

There are still many cases where the rock, when first 
brought from the mine, is broken by hand with a heavy 
hammer, but this process is usually performed by a 
machine known as a rock-breaker. There are two main 
types of these machines. Both are made of heavy cast- 
ing, and are box-like in form with fly-wheels on either 
side. In one the stone is crushed between a flat, fixed 
jaw and a reciprocating one, and in the other the fixed 
jaw is circular and the movable one gyrates inside. In 
both cases the wearing faces of the jaws are fitted with 
dies which may be renewed, and they must be changed 
frequently in the course of the severe task they are put 
to. As a general rule, the stone, which is fed to the rock- 
breaker, should come from its mouth of a size to pass 
through a three-quarter-inch ring when it is ready for 
the stamp-mill. 

The original stamp-mill consisted of a stone mortar 
and pestle. The mortar was filled with the vein stuff 



1 64 



BASIS OF THE MODERN METHOD. 



and the whole ground to powder. Then the larger 
grains of gold, which being malleable were not reduced 
to powder, were sifted out. Finally the siftings were 
placed in a prospecting pan and washed for the fine 
gold. This system is the basis of the ordinary modern 
method. 

The California stamp-mill, which is the one now gen- 
erally used, crushes the bits of ore by means of the 
action of a heavy piece, the stamp, which is lifted by 
appropriate mechanism and allowed to fall, under the 
action of gravity, upon the material in the mortar. It 
thus consists of three essential parts. The first is the 
mortar box proper, with its screens and other attach- 
ments, the mortar block, which forms* the foundation, 
and the dies, which are the wearing face of the anvil 
upon which the ore is crushed. Second, is the stamp, 
which consists essentially of a long stem carrying at its 
extremity a head into which is fitted a removable shoe, 
which constitutes the wearing face of the stamp. With 
this is included also the tappet, which is, correctly speak- 
ing, a part of the lifting mechanism, but as it adds to 
the weight of the stamp is classed with it. Thirdly, 
comes the lifting mechanism, which consists of a horizon- 
tal shaft on which are keyed cams acting on the tappets, 
and also a pulley, which transmits the power to the 
shaft. The mortar block is usually constructed of sound, 
heavy pieces of timber bolted together. The mortar- 
box is made of iron, as are the other important parts of 
the machine. 



PROCESS OF AMALGAMATION. jg- 

In most cases amalgamation is commenced inside the 
mortar box, and to this end copper plates are fastened 
there. Five stamps usually compose what is known as 
a battery. The action of the stamp is two-fold, namely, 
crushing the ore in the first place and afterwards ex- 
pelling the pulp, which consists of minute particles of 
ore suspended in water, through screen apertures. A 
supply of clean water, is required, which is so arranged 
as to run constantly into each battery when in operation. 

After the crushing process is completed, the process 
of extraction of the gold commences. It has already 
been shown that the gold occurs in its ores in two 
forms, amalgamable and non-amalgamable. The former 
is obtained sometimes in the crushers and sometimes 
after the pulp leaves the mill. In the former case 
mercury, to about the amount of three times the antici- 
pated gold, is dropped in the mortar-box. Falling 
among the ore it becomes suspended in the mass, by the 
action of the machine, and coming into contact with the 
particles of gold amalgamates them. This amalgam is 
in turn caught by the inside copper plates and by other 
similar devices outside. There are many contrivances 
based on the general principle of this process, but 
enough has been said to give an idea of the methods 
employed by the miner. 

When the pulp that is pushed from the stamp-mill 
contains gold which refuses to amalgamate, still another 
scheme must be resorted to, which is known as the con- 
centration process. All those minerals which carry gold 



1 66 



SPECIFIC GRAVITY OF MATERIAL. 



with them are comparatively heavy. The specific gravity 
of them may be taken at 5.5, while that of the non- 
metallic and worthless portions of the pulp may be placed 
at about 3. The object of the concentration process, 
briefly stated, is to separate in the pulp mass all those 
particles of specific gravity of 5.5 from those of 3. The 
mechanical principles followed in doing this are simple, 
though the process is of necessity somewhat difficult. 
All bodies that are acted upon by any force would be 
propelled by this force at equal velocities, if there were 
no resistance to their movement and if no friction ex- 
isted. This theoretical condition is, of course, never 
realized, as every body meets with more or less resist- 
ance from the medium which surrounds it. But when 
by the aid of the stamp-mill the ore is ground to a 
powder, the particles of which are approximately spheri- 
cal in shape, and a pulp formed by the aid of water, and 
the whole sent to a concentrator, there to be subjected 
to the action of a force which may be gravity or a 
mechanical impulse, the result is that the bodies, light 
and heavy, moving in a given direction are separated. 
Thus the miner is enabled to take his heavy mineral 
particles from the lighter worthless stuff. 

The types of concentrators are three in number, 
those in which the heavy particles are allowed to settle 
under the action of gravity, those in which the latter 
action is assisted by external means, as in the case of 
buddies, and those in which force is communicated to 
the mass by mechanical action. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MARKETING, SMELTING, ASSAYING, AND COINING OF 

GOLD. 

What the miner does with the unrefined product of his stamp-mill and concentrator- 
Processes which the yellow metal must pass through before the world sees it as 
coin — The chlorination and cyanide operations — Acid baths to separate the 
baser metals from the treasure — The great smelting furnaces and their daily 
flood of riches — Among the ingots of pure gold at the mint — The assayer's 
difficult task — The world's output of gold in four hundred years. 

AFTER what are termed sulphurets have been ob- 
tained by the miner in the form of concentrates they 
must pass through still other processes before the world 
handles them in gold coin, jewelry, and plate. These other 
processes are not in this day regarded as a part of the 
mill man's duty, and the material is usually sent to outside 
assay and reduction works where it is treated generally 
by one of two methods, the wet and the smelting. 

It is interesting to note here what modern methods 
have done in the way of improvement in the securing of 
gold from ores. The Robinson mine in South Africa 
furnishes an admirable illustration of this as does also 
the Treadwell mine in Alaska. After the treatment of 
the Robinson ore by ordinary stamping and amalgama- 
tion methods the return of gold in a recent year was 
$1,885,583. The tailings from the stamp-mill were then 
passed over Frue vanners by which concentrates amount- 
ing to nearly three thousand tons were obtained. This 

167 



j 58 HALF A MILLION SAVED. 

product was roasted and treated by chlorination and 
$219,514 resulted. The tailings from the concentrators 
were in turn passed through the cyanide works and 
yielded $289,722, more than half a million dollars being 
reclaimed, which under old methods would have gone to 
waste. 

Gold, when it comes from the concentrator, usually 
contains silver. Some gold ores contain nearly all the 
metals used in the arts, and it will thus be seen that the 
material sent to the assayers and smelters is of the most 
heterogeneous description, and many methods must be 
used to purify the mass. The most important of these 
are the nitric acid process, the sulphuric acid and the 
electrolytic. The latter is little used outside the largest 
smelting plants. 

Acid-parting processes depend for their success upon 
the solubility of silver, copper, and other metals in a 
liquid which will not attack the gold. Nitric acid was 
first used in Venice for this purpose, and for many years 
no other method was known. The operation consists of 
assorting and proportioning the bullion, granulation of 
the same, solution of the outside metals in acid, and 
treatment of the thus parted materials by washing, 
drying, and melting. 

Thoroughly satisfactory as is the nitric acid process, 
so far as its effectiveness is concerned and the high 
grade of gold which it yields, yet the comparative high 
price of the acid and the necessity for using either 
platinum or porcelain vessels in the operation led to its 



SULPHURIC ACID PROCESS. 



I69 



being superseded in many plants by the sulphuric acid 
process. 

The electrolytic process gives the most satisfactory 
results when the bullion to be parted has been refined 
in a cupel furnace until it contains not over two per cent, 
of impurities, such as lead, copper, bismuth, and the 
like. The material is cast from the cupel into flat plates 
about eighteen inches long, ten inches wide, and one- 
half inch thick. 

These plates form the anodes, and are suspended by 
three lugs cast on one of the long sides. They, there- 
fore, hang with the greater length horizontal. Tanks of 
California redwood planks are very carefully made, 
eleven feet long by two feet wide and twenty inches 
deep (inside measure). Six partitions are placed cross- 
wise in a tank so as to give seven separate cells or 
"baths." In each cell three plates or anodes are sus- 
pended, alternating with four cathodes. These latter 
are thin-rolled sheets of pure silver, thirteen by twenty 
by one-thirty-second inches thick, weighing fifty troy 
ounces each. The distance between anode and cathode 
is about one and three-quarter inches. 

Both anodes and cathodes are suspended by conduct- 
ing wires from copper rods resting on the edges of the 
tank. Two copper bars traverse these top edges, and 
are connected with the respective poles of the dynamo. 
The cross rods supporting the plates rest on these bars, 
but one end of the rod carrying an anode is insulated 
by a rubber band, while the opposite end of the rod 



i;o 



CONDUCTING THE CURRENT" 



carrying a cathode is insulated in like manner. The 
current must therefore pass from one conductor to the 
anodes, through the solution and the cathodes, to the 
return conductor. It will be seen that the current is 
divided between these seven cells and that we have 
twenty-one anodes connected in multiple with twenty- 
eight cathodes. 

A model plant consists of fourteen such tanks contain- 
ing seven cells each. Ten of these tanks are constantly 
in circuit, four being in turn cut out for charging, dis- 
charging, and possible repairs. These ten tanks are 
connected in series. The dynamo furnishes a current 
of one hundred and eighty amperes, with an electro- 
motive force of ninety volts. Such a current requires 
twenty-two horse-power. The total cathode surface is 
ten square feet in each tank. There is, therefore, a cur- 
rent density of eighteen amperes per square foot of 
cathode surface. 

Each anode is inclosed in a muslin bag, that serves 
to catch the undissolved metals, which fall as a black 
slime. In this are found all the gold and bismuth, the 
greater part of the lead as peroxide, together with some 
silver and copper. Below this system of anodes, cathodes, 
and bags in the bath, is stretched on a box-like frame a 
piece of cloth, on which is gathered the deposited silver 
as it is scraped from the cathodes by wooden " brushes." 
These brushes straddle the cathodes without touching, and 
are kept moving to and fro by machinery, and they serve, 
not only to brush off the silver as fast as it is deposited, 



KEEPING THE SOLUTION UNIFORM. j-j 

thus preventing short circuits, but also to keep the solu- 
tion uniform by gentle agitation. 

The solution is one of silver and copper nitrate, to 
which about one per cent, of nitric acid is added. The 
acid tends to prevent the deposition of copper with the 
silver, and about one pint is added to each bath every 
twenty-four hours. Three-eights of one volt will decom- 
pose silver nitrate, while copper nitrate requires one- 
sixth of a volt more and lead nitrate a still higher volt- 
age. 

The chlorination process, which is familiar to all gold 
workers, was invented in 1848. It depends upon the 
fact that chlorine has a strong affinity for native gold, 
and readily combines with it, forming the soluble auric 
chloride. The solution containing the gold can be filtered 
off from the residue with ease. The subject to be treated 
is first properly moistened, in the improved method, and 
then shoveled into a vat with a double bottom. The 
upper false bottom is perforated and supports a suitable 
filter. Chlorine gas is passed into the space below this 
false bottom, and gradually rises until the vat is full. 
The lid is then adjusted and the whole allowed to remain 
until the action is complete, when the soluble chloride of 
gold is washed out through the filter into other vats, where 
the gold is precipitated. Various precipitants, such as 
ferrous sulphate, charcoal, sulphuretted hydrogen, and 
others are used for this purpose. 

The presence of any substance which chlorine attacks 
necessarily causes a waste of the gas and a hindrance 



172 



PREVENTING WASTE. 



to the process. It is, therefore, best to calcine the concen- 
trates as perfectly as possible before attempting chlori- 
nation. 

All concentrates can be treated by the smelting pro- 
cess. Smelting can, however, only be practiced when 
suitable ores are available for mixing to make a proper 
furnace charge. When argentiferous lead ores, such as 
galena, are smelted in the blast furnace it is necessary 
to add a flux of which oxide of iron is an essential in- 
gredient, the products of fusion being base bullion, con- 
sisting of metallic lead which contains all the gold pres- 
ent in the furnace charge and a slag consisting of silicates 
usually of iron, lime, alumina, magnesia, and so on, 
according to the nature of the fluxes employed. Aurifer- 
ous concentrates, consisting say of iron and arsenical 
pyrites, can be employed in this process by being first 
calcined. There will result an auriferous oxide of iron, 
which could be added as a flux to the other ingredients 
of the furnace charge. Almost all the gold present will 
alloy with the lead produced, and will be found in the 
base bullion from which it is afterwards separated. 

According to the nature of the other ingredients, it is 
not infrequently an advantage to have a certain amount 
of crushed quartz left in the concentrates when they go 
to the smelter, but in general it is the rule of the mill- 
man to send his material there as clean and rich as pos- 
sible. 

A bath of copper may be substituted for the lead in the 
smelting process — that is, the former metal is used in- 



THE COPPER BATH. 



173 



stead of the latter to collect the precious particles in the 
course of the operation. This process is particularly 
suitable when the concentrates contain a notable pro- 
portion of copper pyrites as the copper thus becomes 
one of the available ingredients of the product. Coarse 
copper is produced by a series of smelting processes 
carried on in reverberatory and blast furnaces and run 
into slabs, which are refined by electrolysis. During the 
electrolytic process the gold in an impure state is de- 
posited in black mud at the bottom of the vats and re- 
fined by cupellation. 

The cyanide process is still another branch of the re- 
finer's art. It is not yet well understood, and can be 
applied to only a limited class of ores, though these are 
abundant in quantity. The process is declared by ex- 
perts to have a promising future. It will extract gold 
often from products, such as old tailings, upon which 
other methods have failed. It has its basis on the fact 
of the solubility of gold in a solution of cynanide of 
potassium. As the solution has no action upon native 
sulphides, usually occurring in concentrates, it is unlike 
chlorine, and calcination can be dispensed with. It is 
therefore cheaper. 

The process consists simply in allowing a weak solution 
of cyanide of potassium to percolate through crushed 
ore. It is found that such a solution dissolves a large 
proportion, perhaps ninety per cent, of the gold con- 
tents of the ore while scarcely attacking any of the base 
metals contained. The solution then contains gold in 



! 74 THE CYANIDE APPARATUS. 

the form of potassic aurocyanide, and is filtered off 
when the gold is precipitated. The apparatus consists 
of dissolving tanks, in which the solution is prepared, 
storage tanks in which it is diluted to the desired extent, 
leaching vessels, in which the lixiviation proper is carried 
out, and precipitating vats in which the precipitation takes 
place. 

The purified bullion is ready for issue in either of the 
two fields, industrial or coinage. The consumption of gold 
and silver in the industrial arts is much greater than is 
generally supposed. During the year ending June 30th, 
1 895, gold and silver bars for industrial use were manufac- 
tured in the Philadelphia mint and the assay office at New 
York to the coinage value of $17,818,581, in about equal 
proportions as to value. Private refineries furnished not 
less than $5,000,000 more. This first cost for what to the 
gold-beater, jeweler, watch-case maker, etc., is simply his 
raw material, represents an enormous industry when we 
consider the amount of high-grade labor w T hich is be- 
stowed on gold and silver wares. These bars are 0.999 
fine, and are furnished to the public by what may be 
called a system of exchange. 

A depositor may bring crude bullion in any quantity 
($100 or more in value) and receive either fine gold bars 
or coin, at his option, to the full value of the gold in his 
deposit, less a trifling charge for melting, assaying, part- 
ing, etc. These charges vary according to the nature of 
the deposit, but may amount to five cents per ounce. 
The bars or coin are delivered from stock on hand as soon 



THE SYSTEM OF EXCHANGE. jyc 

as the value of the deposit is ascertained by assay, usually 
the following day. For the silver contained in gold 
deposit the owner may either receive pure silver bars or 
be paid in silver dollars or currency, at the market value 
of silver. 

Having a stock of refined gold and silver nearly pure, 
the first step toward conversion into coin is to make an 
alloy with copper, in such proportions as will produce 
standard planchets or " blanks " in the hands of the 
coiner. While the standard fineness of gold and silver 
coin is the same, yet, as will appear later, the quantity of 
copper to be used in the two cases differs a little, yet 
materially. 

Weighed quantities of gold and copper, or of silver 
and copper, are melted together in a large black-lead 
crucible. The molten metals thoroughly mixed are then 
poured into cast-iron molds to produce what are known 
as ingots. These are rectangular bars, differing in size 
according to the kind of coin for which they are intended. 
The ingot for silver-dollar coinage is I % inches wide by 
one-half inch thick and 12^ inches long. Some 70 such 
ingot bars are made from one "melt," and weigh col- 
lectively about 3,300 ounces (220 pounds). All the 
ingots are stamped with the melt number, of which a 
record is kept by the melter and refiner, by the assayer, 
and by the superintendent. 

The crucible is set for the day's work in a furnace 
peculiarly adapted to the purpose, and a continuous fire 
maintained, using the best stone coal and a natural draft. 



176 



INGOTS CUT BY MACHINE. 



Five or six melts are made in each furnace during the 
eight hours ; and if the crucibles were taken out of the 
furnace at each time of pouring much time would be lost 
in resetting- and surrounding it with a fresh fire. 

The metal, when melted, is thoroughly mixed by 
stirring with a tool not unlike a churn-dasher, and it is 
then ladled out into the molds with what is called a " dip- 
ping cup." This is a small black-lead pot made with a 
lip on one side and a straight edge on the opposite side 
so formed as not to be crushed when firmly gripped by 
a pair of nipping tongs. 

The molten metal is slowly poured from the dipping 
cup into upright molds, of which some twenty are placed 
in a shallow iron pan convenient to the furnace. As 
soon as a mold is filled it is removed by an attendant 
helper, and passed by him to another, who opens it on an 
iron-covered table and throws out the red-hot ingots. 
These are chilled in water and then immersed for a few 
minutes in very dilute sulphuric acid. This latter removes 
a slight coating of copper oxide and gives the ingots a 
bright matte color. The gate end of the ingot is then 
cut off in a machine which has a shear knife. The little 
fringe left on the ingot by the parting line of the mold 
is removed with a file, and then each ingot receives a 
number indicating the melt from which it is made. 

Standard coin is composed of 900 parts of gold and 
100 parts of purest copper. While the law allows a 
slight variation in the fineness of coin, to provide for the 
limitations of human workmanship, yet this margin is 



m 



KEEPING THE RECORD. 



177 



sharply defined and is but a small fraction of 1 per 
cent. 

The manufacture of gold ingots is much less trouble- 
some than silver. The crucible which has a holding 
capacity of, say, 3,300 ounces of standard silver will 
serve for a gold melt of 6,000 to 6,500 ounces (400 to 
430 pounds avoirdupois). 

The fineness of gold bars is furnished to the melter 
and refiner by the assayer to the tenth of one-thou- 
sandth. Bars, preferably of identical fineness, are 
weighed off in proper quantity for a melt, and placed on 
a hand-truck with a melt number tagged to each little 
pile of bars. A sufficient number of such are prepared 
for a day's melting. A chest of drawers mounted on a 
truck carries suitable-sized boxes, each having a perma- 
nent number plainly marked on it. 

The copper requisite for melts Nos. 1,2, 3, etc., is 
placed in boxes 1, 2, 3, etc., and the trucks with bars and 
the one carrying the boxes of alloy meet in the melting 
room, where the distribution is made, a single melt at a 
time — bars and alloy — to each furnace. 

A strict record is kept, and the melting room is charged 
with weight of all metals sent into it in the morning. At 
the close of work for the day and before the workmen 
are dismissed, all returns from the room, whether ingots, 
tops, filings, etc., are weighed, when any shortage, real 
or apparent, will be noted. Of course the returns never 
exactly equal the charge sent out, since some little metal 
will adhere to the crucibles and some will be found in 



1 78 



THE ACTUAL " SWEEPS. 



the ashes. This is afterward recovered as " sweeps." 
But for the time being these shortages are unknown 
quantities. Experience, however, has shown what may 
be expected to pass into the sweeps, and an allowance 
is made in comparing the charge and returns from the 
day's work. 

The sweep is a very broad general term in mint prac- 
tice, and includes every kind of waste material known 
to contain, or likely to contain, gold or silver, except 
actual sweepings. The floor of the melting room is 
swept each day, but the gatherings from the broom are 
carefully mingled with a suitable flux and thrown into 
one of the crucibles, still hot and surrounded by the fire 
left from the day's work. A crucible is selected which 
has seen such service as to entitle it to retirement from 
age. On the following morning the contents of the 
crucible will be found to have " sweated " down, the flux 
to have fused into a glass, and a lump of metal or " king " 
will be found at the bottom on breaking the crucible. 
This king is weighed, credited to the melting room, sent 
to and charged to the refinery. 

The actual " sweeps " consist of broken crucibles and 
dipping cups, all ashes from the fires, burnt gloves, 
aprons, saw dust, and packages in which bullion has 
been sent to the mint, settlings in catch wells and in roof 
gutters ; in short, everything which may contain bullion 
without its being visible to the eye. 

All material of this kind is sent to the sweep cellar, 
and such as needs crushing is passed under heavy cast- 





■ . ■■■>. .--\ ■ ■ ■ 



Miner's House and Native's Totem Pole, 



THE FRENCH SYSTEM EMPLOYED. jgj 

iron rollers mounted in a mill similar in principle to the 
Chilian. The advantage of the roller crushing is that 
while brittle materials are reduced to a coarse powder, 
any pellets of metal will be flattened out and caught in 
the sifting operation which follows. These metallic 
scales are melted down and find their way to the refinery. 

The assaying of gold is still another important process 
which must be gone through with at the mint and else- 
where to ascertain its fineness and value. 

Gold received at the mint for refining or coinage, 
either in a manufactured or native condition, is of every 
variety of fineness, the alloy in a majority of cases being 
silver, with a smaller proportion of base metal. In some 
cases of low-grade gold the alloy is largely composed 
of copper. The object of the assay is to ascertain these 
different proportions, both in order to base the calcula- 
tions for value and for subsequent minting operations. 
For this purpose a small sample is cut from each bar 
after melting. The fineness of this sample must, if the 
melting has been properly conducted, be the fineness of 
the gross amount. 

The fineness of gold being expressed in thousandths 
(pure gold being 1,000), it has been found expedient in 
assaying to employ the French system of weights, using 
the demigramme as a unit of 1,000 parts with the deci- 
mal divisions to the ten thousandth of that weight. The 
demigramme is rather less than eight grains. From the 
sample, after it has been laminated for convenience in 
chipping, there is accurately weighed one demigramme 



jg 2 REMOVING THE BASE METAL. 

on the assay balance. This assay balance is so con- 
structed as to be of the utmost precision and delicacy, 
and so fine is the adjustment that it is sensitive to the 
fiftieth of a milligramme. 

To the gold, after being accurately weighed, there is 
added sufficient fine silver to make about twice (accord- 
ing to one system) or thrice (according to another 
method, now less used) the estimated amount of silver 
which may be contained in the alloy, extreme care being 
necessary that the amount of silver added varies as little 
as possible from this proportion, as in any marked di- 
vergence the result would be liable to inaccuracy. 
Practice enables an expert to judge of the fineness of 
the gold within a few thousandths, thus securing the 
proper basis for the addition of silver. It is needless to 
say that the added silver is accurately weighed. If the 
gold or assay is of low fineness, or contains a large 
amount of base metal, where it is impossible to estimate 
the quality, it is customary to make a preliminary or 
approximate assay as a basis or guide for a subsequent 
rigid assay. 

The gold and silver, each having been weighed, are in- 
closed in a piece of lead foil about ten times the weight 
of the assay. A very little copper is added, merely to 
assist the cupellation. These are now ready for what 
may be termed the first part of the operation, that of 
removing the copper and other base metal. This is 
effected by the cupelling process. The cupel is a small, 
shallow cup made from the ash of bones or the pith of 



OXIDIZING THE BASE METAL. 



183 



animal horns. It possesses the quality of absorbing the 
oxides of the metals, but not the metals themselves. 
The bone or pith is first well burned in open air and 
thoroughly ground, after which it is moistened with 
water and pressed in a mold to the desired shape. 

The assay furnace is oval in cross section, about one 
foot in height, made of fire brick. Extending across the 
furnace about the centre is what is known as the 
il bridge" (this is also made of fire brick), and is de- 
signed to support the muffle. The muffle is the oven 
for the reception of the cupels. It is flat-bottomed, with 
an arched top, its length nearly corresponding to the 
depth of the furnace. The modern furnace is arranged 
for burning gas ; the flame completely surrounding the 
muffle subjects it to a high heat, easily controlled and 
regulated. 

The front of the furnace has an arched opening cor- 
responding to the muffle ; through this opening the 
cupels are introduced by a long pair of spring tongs. 
When in operation the muffle is nearly closed by a door, 
allowing, however, the entrance of a regulated current 
of air, which, passing over the assay, oxidizes the lead 
and base metals, their oxides being absorbed by the cupel. 
At the back of the muffle is a slit or opening, which 
allows the exit of the unabsorbed fumes formed by the 
oxides of the metals, which are not absorbed by the cupel. 

The furnace having been properly heated, the cupels 
are placed therein and brought to a uniform temperature, 
of which the assayer must judge from experience. 



i84 



THE CORNET OF FINE GOLD. 



Each leaden bullet, with its contents, is then placed in 
its cupel and the furnace closed. The lead, in which the 
gold and silver is inclosed, is rapidly changed to a fluid, 
vitreous oxide, which, exerting an oxidizing effect on the 
base metals in the gold, causes their absorption into the 
pores of the cupel. The lead likewise serves to form a 
more uniform alloy between the gold and silver. The 
precious metal is allowed to remain in the cupel until all 
agitation ceases, when it presents a bright surface, which 
indicates that the base metals have oxidized and ab- 
sorbed. The cupel is now allowed to cool gradually and 
the button of pure gold and silver detached. 

The next step is to extract the silver, which is accom- 
plished by digesting the rolled-out button in nitric 
acid. The object of the original addition of the silver 
is to make an alloy in which the particles of gold shall 
be so far separated from each other that the action de- 
sired shall not be interfered with. The button is ham- 
mered and rolled into a thin sheet to give the widest 
possible surface for the action of the acid. The sheet 
is rolled loosely into what is termed a cornet. The lat- 
ter is introduced into a small vessel, where a boiling 
process in acid takes place. When the digesting process 
is completed it is presumed that all silver has been re- 
moved. The acid is poured off, the cornet well washed 
and placed in a small clay crucible to be dried and an- 
nealed. The cornet, which is then fine gold, is taken 
to the assay balance and its weight ascertained in thou- 
sandths of a demigramme. The number of thousandths 



THE DUPLICATE ASSAY. 



I8 5 



which it weighs expresses the fineness of the original 
sample. 

In assaying fine (or nearly fine) gold the proof is 
weighed to 1,000 parts of the test gold ; but in assaying 
ingots for coinage and the ordinary class of deposits a 
proof of 900 parts is used, and in lower grades of gold a 
synthetic proof is used corresponding to the approximate 
or supposed fineness of the metal, the object being to 
subject an alloy of known composition closely similar to 
that under test to identical treatment.- 

After the ingots have been made, the first and last 
ingot from every melt are carried to the assay room and 
a sample slip taken from each. These are assayed 
separately and their fineness reported to the melter and 
refiner. The ingots or melts which may be too far from 
the legal standard, or fail to show a uniformity of fine- 
ness in the assays, are condemned. They are then re- 
melted with the proper addition of either gold or copper, 
as the case may require, to bring them to standard. 

With every sample of gold assayed there is also a 
corresponding duplicate assay made, to guard against 
any error which might possibly occur in the various 
assay processes. Besides this, the duplicate serves to 
show if the alloy be of a uniform fineness throughout. 
If such is not the case (as shown by the v° ration of the 
assays), the mass from which the sample was taken is 
remelted and stirred to make it homogeneous, after 
which it is assayed in duplicate as before. 

In case the gold for assay be of low fineness, or if 



j g5 COIN FROM THE INGOTS. 

there is but a small proportion of gold in the alloy, it is 
found to be expedient in preparing the assay to add 
sufficient fine gold so that the assay may contain 900 
parts of gold in the thousand. By this course the exact 
fineness of the alloy is ascertained, otherwise an allow- 
ance would have to be made for a slight absorption of 
gold by the cupel, which will happen when a large pro- 
portion of alloy is present. When the weight of the 
cornet is ascertained, the amount of fine gold which was 
added must be deducted, the difference being the fine- 
ness of the original alloy. 

It sometimes happens that the ordinary amount of 
lead is insufficient to cause the entire elimination of all 
the base alloy in the gold. It may be, too, that the 
cupel is not capable of absorbing the entire amount of 
lead which such an assay would require. To avoid these 
difficulties it is customary to weigh the assay at one- 
half the usual weight, adding fine gold as described 
above, thus diminishing in like proportion the amount 
of base metal to be oxidized and absorbed by the cupel. 

The ingots as received from the melter and refiner by 
the coiner vary in size and weight according to the de- 
nomination of the piece for which they are to be used. 
The first operation in converting ingots into coin, called 
"breaking down," is the passing of them between heavy 
rolls, which results in the ingot being formed into 
"strips." To more clearly understand this, it maybe 
said that the ingots are divided into drafts of from forty 
to sixty ingots, and each draft passed between the 



IN THE POINTING ROLLS. 



I87 



"break-down" rolls a number of times, determined by 
the malleability of the metal. After each operation the 
rolls are tightened and brought closer together by means 
of wedges under the lower roll, which wedges are worked 
by means of a worm wheel. Such tightening of the rolls 
is shown by an indicator similar to a clock dial. 

In " breaking down " ingots the metal becomes hard 
and springy, and too much rolling without softening 
causes the strips to crack and split. To avoid this they 
are annealed as follows : Inclosed in copper canisters, 
sealed with potters' clay to exclude air and thus prevent 
oxidation, the strips are placed in a furnace heated to 
about 1,500° F., where they remain for about one hour 
and a half, the time depending upon the heat of the fur- 
nace and the size of the strips. After being cooled off 
in water and each strip wiped dry they are ready for 
further reduction in the finishing rolls. 

Double eagles and eagles are passed through the 
finishing rolls three times, half-eagles and quarter-eagles 
four times. 

The strips, upon leaving the finishing rolls, are again 
annealed, cut in two for convenience in handling, and 
taken to the pointing rolls, where the end is flattened to 
permit of an easy passage through the dies of the draw- 
bench. The draw-benches are double, and each section 
is independent of the other in action. Each has two 
dies, regulated by set screws. Between these dies the 
pointed end of the strip is passed, and being seized by 
the jaws of the carriage, which is drawn by means of an 



igg PREPARED FOR THE DIES. 

endless chain, the strip is passed through and reduced 
as near as may be to the standard weight. The opera- 
tion is similar to that of wire drawing. When the strips 
are drawn to the proper weight, which is ascertained by 
weighing, each piece is weighed in the adjusting room, and 
if found to be heavier than the legal limit, is reduced within 
the limit by filing the edge of the planchet ; if lighter 
than the legal limit, it is condemned and returned to the 
melter and refiner to be remelted. Those planchets 
which have been adjusted are then taken to the milling 
machines to undergo the operation of having the raised 
edge (technically termed "milling") put on them. The 
milling protects the surface of the coin from abrasion. 

In the milling machines the planchets are fed by hand 
into a vertical tube, and, one by one, are caused to rotate 
in a horizontal plane in a groove formed on one side by 
a revolving wheel and on the other by a fixed segment of 
a corresponding groove. Each piece as it passes through 
this narrow groove has its edge evenly forced up into a 
border or rim. The milled pieces are then taken to the 
cleaning-room to be cleaned. To facilitate the cleaning, 
as well as to soften the pieces for the imprint of the dies, 
they are again annealed by heating to a cherry red, then 
dipped into a solution of sulphuric acid and water suffi- 
ciently strong to clean and brighten them. After being 
thoroughly rinsed in boiling water they are hand-riddled 
in sawdust to dry them, and are then ready for the 
stamping-press. 

The most important operation in the stamping of a 



THE DEVIATION IN WEIGHT. 



189 



piece is the adjustment of the dies in the press. This 
adjustment requires great skill and long experience, 
much depending upon the character of the metal to be 
operated upon. The pieces are fed to the press through 
a vertical tube, and as each piece reaches the bottom 
of the tube steel feeders carry it over between the dies, 
place it in a steel collar, when the dies close upon the 
planchet and the obverse and reverse impressions are 
made. The inner rim of the collar is reeded or fluted, 
and the planchet before being struck is slightly less in 
diameter than the collar ; but the pressure upon the dies 
causes the piece to expand in the collar and takes from 
it the reeding on its edge. 

There is a limit of tolerance on individual pieces, but 
all coins are far within this limit. Those pieces that are 
heavier than the standard weight are termed "heavies;" 
those that are lighter than standard weight are termed 
"lights." Gold coin is put up in drafts of $5,000 each. 
The legal weight of $5,000 in gold coin is 268.75 trov 
ounces, but there is a deviation allowed by law of one- 
hundredth of an ounce from this legal weight. In mak- 
ing up the drafts the " lights," " heavies," and " stand- 
ards " are mixed so that the deviation from 268.75 ounces 
shall not exceed one-hundredth of an ounce. 

The production of gold in Alaska in 1895 was 78,000 
ounces ; in 1896 it reached 120,000 ounces. 

The following table is of great interest, showing, as it 
does, the world's output of gold in the last 400 years, 
according to the United States government report : 



190 



THE WORLD'S OUTPUT OF GOLD. 













Gold. 




Period. 


Annual average for period. 


Total fo 


r period. 




Fine ounces. 


Value. 


Fine ounces. 


Value. 


I 


I493-I520, . . 


186,470 


#3>855,O0O 


5,22I,l6o 


$107,931,000 


2 


1521-1544, 




230,194 


4,759,000 


5,524,656 


1 14,205,000 


3 


1545-1560, 




273.596 


5,656,000 


4,377,544 


90,492,000 


4 


1561-1580, 




219,906 


4,546,000 


4,398,120 


90,917,000 


5 


1581-I600, 




237,267 


4,905,000 


4,745,340 


98,095,000 


6 


160I-1620, 




273,918 


5,662,000 


5,478,360 


113,248,000 


7 


I 621-1640, 




266,845 


5,516,000 


5,336,900 


110,324,000 


8 


1641-1660, 




281,955 


5,828,000 


5,639, "o 


Il6,57I,000 


9 


1661-1680, 




297,709 


6,154,000 


5,954,180 


123,084,000 


10 


1681-1700, 




346,095 


7,154,000 


6,921,895 


I43,o88,000 


11 


1701-1720, 




412,163 


8,520,000 


8,243,260 


170,403,000 


12 


1721-1740, 




613,422 


I2,68l,000 


12,268,440 


253,611,000 


13 


174I-176O, 




791,211 


16,356,000 


15,824,230 


327,116,000 


14 


1761-1780, 




665,666 


13,761,000 


13,313,315 


275,211,000 


15 


1781-1800, 




571,948 


11,823,000 


11,438,970 


236,464,000 


16 


1801-1810, 




571,563 


II,8l5,000 


5,715,627 


Il8,I52,000 


17 


1811-1820, 




367,957 


7,6o6,000 


3,679,568 


76,063,000 


18 


1821-1830, 




457,044 


9,448,000 


4,570,444 


94,479,000 


19 


I 831-1840, 




652,291 


13,484,000 


6,522,913 


134,841,000 


20 


I84I-1850, 




1,760,502 


36,393,0 


17,605,018 


363,928,000 


21 


I85I-I855, 




6,410,324 


132,513,000 


32,051,621 


662,566,000 


22 


1856-1860, 




6,486,262 


134,083,000 


3 2 ,43i,3 12 


670,415,000 


23 


1861-1865, 




5,949,582 


122,989,000 


29,747,9 J 3 


614,944,000 


24 


1866-1870, 




6,270,086 


129,614,000 


31,350,430 


648,071,000 


25 


1871-1875, 




5,59I,OI4 


115,577,000 


27,955,o68 


577,883,000 


26 


1876-1880, 




5,543, "o 


114,586,000 


27,7I5,55 


572,931,000 


27 


1S81-1885, 




4,794,755 


99,Il6,000 


23,973,773 


495,582,000 


28 


1886, . . 




5,135,679 


106.163,900 


5,135,679 


106,163,900 


29 


1887, 








5,n6,86i 


105,774,900 


5,116,861 


105,774,900 


3° 


1888, 








5,330,775 


110,196,900 


5,330,775 


110,196,900 


3i 


1889, 








5,973,790 


123,489,200 


5,973,79° 


123,489,200 


32 


1890, 








5,749,3o6 


118,848,700 


5,749,3o6 


118,848,700 


33 


1891, 








6,320,194 


130,650,000 


6,320,194 


130,650,000 


34 


1892, 








7,094,266 


146,651,500 


7,094,266 


146,651,500 


35 


1893, 








7,618,811 


157,494,800 


7,618,811 


157,494,800 


36 


1894, 








8,783,342 


181,567,800 


8,783,342 


181,567,800 


37 


I8 9 5, 








9,694,640 


200,406,000 


9,694,640 


200,406,000 




Total. 








424,822,381 


8,781,858,700 

















CHAPTER IX. 

MINING LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES AND NORTHWEST 
TERRITORIES. 

Early Laws on the Yukon — Gold and Silver Mines the Property of Kings — 
The Establishment of a Gold Commissioner at Fort Cudahy — The 
Newly Promulgated Canadian Mining Regulations — Alternate 
Claims Reserved for the Crown — The Levying of Royalties — Char- 
tering of Companies in the Northwest Territories — Fees for Incor- 
poration — Application of the United States Land Laws to Alaska — 
The Mining Acts of 1866 and 1872 — The Miners' Meetings — Size 
and Location of Claims — The Camp Recorder and His Fees. 

MINING has been going on along the Yukon for a 
good many years, and but little attention has 
been paid to the statutes covering claims. There has 
been room for all, a few rudely-framed rules were estab- 
lished and in general observed, and for the rest might 
gave right. The United States Government has never 
until quite recently shown any disposition to enforce 
laws of any kind in the Alaskan interior. Naturally the 
mining code of the United States has played but an 
insignificant role along the Birch and other gold-produc- 
ing waters. The same is true of the territory on the 
Canadian side of the boundary line. The Dominion 
Mining Laws, enacted in 1889, were nominally in force 
within a very recent date, but as no provisions were 
made to carry out their various clauses, they have been 
honored more in the breach than in the observance. 
However, when the great finds along the Klondike and 
other Canadian waters became known, the Dominion 

officials saw fit to revise these laws and also to provide 

191 



192 GOLD COMMISSIONER. 

for their enforcement. No restrictions have been placed 
upon Americans in working claims upon Canadian soil, 
and, unless some change is made later on, the American 
citizen on the Klondike will work on an equal footing 
with subjects of the Queen. Gold and silver mines have 
always been looked upon as the property of the sover- 
eign by virtue of the royal prerogative. Acting on this 
principle, it has been the disposition of most states to 
treat gold and silver mines as public property, and a 
part of the natural domain worked by the state on its 
own account or granted by the state to individuals to be 
worked by them under certain restrictions. 

In order to carry out the newly-promulgated laws, the 
Canadian Government has established at Ft. Cudahy 
a Gold Commissioner invested with extraordinary 
powers. In order to strengthen his hands in carrying 
on the arduous duties of his post, the force of Mounted 
Police in the district has been materially strengthened. 

Copies of the regulations now in force along the 
Yukon River and its tributaries in the Northwest Terri- 
tories of the Dominion of Canada, with such changes as 
may be made in them from time to time, can be obtained 
by applying to the Department of the Interior, Ottawa, 
Ontario ; or to the Gold Commissioner, at Fort Cudahy, 
Yukon District, Northwest Territories, Canada. 

These laws, as they now stand, read as follows : 

" Interpretation. 
" ' Bar diggings' shall mean any part of a river over 
which the water extends when the water is in its flooded 
state, and which is not covered at low water. 



MINING TERMS. 1 93 

" Mines on benches shall be known as bench diggings, 
and shall for the purpose of defining the size of such 
claims be excepted from dry diggings. 

"'Dry diggings' shall mean any mine over which 
a river never extends. 

" ' Miner' shall mean a male or female over the age 
of eighteen, but not under that age. 

" ' Claims ' shall mean the personal right of property 
in a placer mine or diggings during the time for which 
the grant of such mine or diggings is made. 

"'Legal post' shall mean a stake standing not less 
than four feet above the ground and squared on four 
sides for at least one foot from the top. Both sides so 
squared shall measure at least four inches across the 
face. It shall also mean any stump or tree cut off and 
squared or faced to the above height and size. 

"'Close season' shall mean the period of the year 
during which placer mining is generally suspended. 
The period to be fixed by the gold commissioner in 
whose district the claim is situated. 

"'Locality' shall mean the territory along a river 
(tributary of the Yukon) and its affluents. 

"'Mineral' shall include all minerals whatsoever 
other than coal. 

"NATURE AND SIZE OF CLAIMS. 

" First. Bar diggings : A strip of land one hundred 
feet wide at high- water mark and thence extending along 
into the river to its lowest water level. 

" Second. The sides of a claim for bar diggings shall 



194 $ IZ E OF CLAIMS. 

be two parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right 
angles to the stream, and shall be marked by four legal 
posts, one at each end of the claim at or about high- 
water mark, also one at each end of the claim at or about 
the edge of the water. One of the posts at high-water 
mark shall be legibly marked with the name of the miner 
and the date upon which the claim is staked. 

" Third. Dry diggings shall be one hundred feet 
square, and shall have placed at each of its four corners 
a legal post, upon one of which shall be legibly marked 
the name of the miner and the date upon which the 
claim was staked. 

"Fourth. Creek and river claims shall be 500 feet 
long, measured in the direction of the general course of 
the stream, and shall extend in width from base to base 
of the hill or bench on each side, but when the hill or 
benches are less than 100 feet apart, the claim may be 
100 feet in depth. The sides of a claim shall be two 
parallel lines run as nearly as possible at right angles to 
the stream. The sides shall be marked with legal posts 
at or about the edge of the water, and at the rear 
boundaries of the claim. One of the legal posts at the 
stream shall be legibly marked with the name of the 
miner and the date upon which the claim was staked. 

"Fifth. A bench claim shall be 100 feet square, and 
shall have placed at each of its four corners a legal post 
upon which shall be legibly marked the name of the 
miner and the date upon which the claim was staked. 

"Sixth. Entry shall only be granted for alternate 
claims, the other alternate claims being reserved for the 



PENALTIES. jgc 

crown, to be disposed of at public auction, or in such 
manner as may be decided by the Minister of the In- 
terior. 

" The penalty for trespassing upon a claim reserved 
for the Crown shall be immediate cancellation by the 
Gold Commissioner of any entry or entries which the 
person trespassing may have obtained, whether by orig- 
inal entry or purchase for a mining claim, and the re- 
fusal by the Gold Commissioner of the acceptance of 
any application which the person trespassing may at any 
time make for a claim. In addition to such penalty, the 
mounted police, upon a requisition from the Gold Com- 
missioner to that effect, shall take the necessary steps to 
eject the trespasser. 

" Seventh. In defining the size of claims, they shall *oe 
measured horizontally, irrespective of inequalities on the 
surface of the ground. 

"Eighth. If any person or persons shall discover a 
new mine, and such discovery shall be established to the 
satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner, a claim for the 
bar diggings 750 feet in length may be granted. 

" A new stratum of auriferous earth or gravel situated 
in a locality where the claims are abandoned shall, for 
this purpose, be deemed a new mine, although the same 
locality shall have previously been worked at a different 
level. 

"Ninth. The forms of application for a grant for 
placer mining and the grant of the same shall be those 
contained in forms ' H ' and ' I ' in the schedule hereto 
attached. 



196 FEES AND ROYALTIES. 

" Tenth. A claim shall be recorded with the Gold 
Commissioner in whose district it is situated within three 
days after the location thereof, if it is located within ten 
miles of the commissioner's office. One extra day shall 
be allowed for making such record for every additional 
ten miles and fraction thereof. 

"Eleventh. In the event of the absence of the Gold 
Commissioner from his office, entry for a claim may be 
granted by any person whom he may appoint to perform 
his duties in his absence. 

" Twelfth. Entry shall not be granted for a claim 
which has not been staked by the applicant in person, in 
the manner specified in these regulations. An affidavit 
that the claim was staked out by the applicant shall be 
embodied in form ' H ' of the schedule hereto attached. 

" Thirteenth. An entry fee of $15 shall be charged the 
first year and an annual fee of $100 for each of the fol- 
lowing years. This provision shall apply to the locations 
for which entries have already been granted. 

" Fourteenth. A royalty of ten per cent, on the gold 
mined shall be levied and collected by the officers to be 
appointed for the purpose, provided the amount so 
mined and taken from a single claim does not exceed 
five hundred dollars per week. In case the amount 
mined and taken from any single claim exceeds five 
hundred dollars per week, there shall be levied and 
collected a royalty of ten per cent, upon the amount 
so taken out up to five hundred dollars, and upon the 
excess, or amount taken from any single claim over five 
hundred dollars per week, there shall be levied and col- 



FALSE STATEMENTS. 1 99 

lected a royalty of twenty per cent, such royalty to form 
part of the consolidated Revenue, and to be accounted 
for by the officers who collect the same in due course. 
The time and manner in which such royalty shall be col- 
lected, and the person who shall collect the same, shall 
be provided for by regulations to be made by the Gold 
Commissioner. 

Default in payment of such royalty, if continued for 
ten days, after notice has been posted upon the claim in 
respect of which it is demanded, or in the vicinity of such 
claim, by the Gold Commissioner or his agent, shall be 
followed by cancellation of the claim. Any attempt to 
defraud the Crown by withholding any part of the revenue 
thus provided for, by making false statements of the 
amount taken out, shall be punished by cancellation of 
the claim in respect of which fraud or false statements 
have been committed or made. In respect of the facts 
as to such fraud or false statements or non-payment of 
royalty, the decision of the Gold Commissioner shall be 
final. 

"Fifteenth. After the recording of a claim, the removal 
of any post by the holder thereof, or any person acting 
in his behalf, for the purpose of changing the boundaries 
of his claim, shall act as a forfeiture of the claim. 

" Sixteenth. The entry of every holder for a grant for 
placer mining must be renewed, and his receipt relin- 
quished and replaced every year, the entry fee being 
paid each year. 

" Seventeenth. No miner shall receive a grant for more 
than one mining claim in the same locality ; but the same 



200 SALE OR MORTGAGE. 

miner may hold any number of claims by purchase, and 
any number of miners may unite to work their claims 
In common upon such terms as they may arrange, pro- 
vided such agreement be registered with the Gold Com- 
missioner and a fee of $5 paid for each registration. 

" Eighteenth. Any miner or miners may sell, mortgage, 
or dispose of his or their claims, provided such disposal 
be registered with and a fee of $2 paid to the Gold Com- 
missioner, who shall thereupon 'give the assignee a cer- 
tificate in form " J " in the schedule hereto attached. 

"Nineteenth. Every miner shall, during the continu- 
ance of his grant, have the exclusive right of entry upon 
his own claim for the miner-like working thereof and the 
construction of a residence thereon, and shall be entitled 
exclusively to all the proceeds realized therefrom ; but 
he shall have no surface rights therein, and the Gold 
Commissioner may grant to the holders of adjacent 
claims such rights of entry thereon as may be absolutely 
necessary for the working of their claims upon such 
terms as may to him seem reasonable. He may also 
grant permits to miners to cut timber thereon for their 
own use upon payment of the dues prescribed by the 
regulations in that behalf. 

" Twentieth. Every miner shall be entitled to the use 
of so much of the water naturally flowing through or 
past his claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as 
shall in the opinion of the Gold Commissioner, be neces- 
sary for the due working thereof, and shall be entitled to 
drain his own claim free of charge. 

Twenty-first A claim shall be deemed to be aban- 



MINER'S RIGHTS. 201 

domed and open to the occupation and entry by any 
person when the same shall have remained unworked 
on working days by the grantee thereof or by some 
person on his behalf for the space of seventy-two hours, 
unless sickness or other reasonable cause may be shown 
to the satisfaction of the Gold Commissioner, or unless 
the grantee is absent on leave given by the Commis- 
sioner, and the Gold Commissioner, upon obtaining evi- 
dence satisfactory to himself that this provision is not 
being complied with, may cancel the entry given for a 
claim. 

"Twenty-second. If the land upon which a claim has 
been located is not the property of the Crown, it will be 
necessary for the person who applies for entry to furnish 
proof that he has acquired from the owner of the land 
the surface right before entry can be granted. 

" Twenty-third. If the occupier of the land has not re- 
ceived a patent therefor, the purchase-money of the sur- 
face rights must be paid to the Crown, and a patent of 
the surface rights will issue to the party who acquired 
the mining rights. The money so collected will either 
be refunded to the occupier of the land when he is enti- 
tled to a patent therefor, or will be credited to him on 
account of payment for land. 

11 Twenty-fourth. When the party obtaining the min- 
ing rights cannot make an arrangement with the owner 
thereof for the acquisition of the surface rights, it shall 
be lawful for him to give notice to the owner or his 
agent, or the occupier, to appoint an arbitrator to act 
with another arbitrator named by him in order to award 



202 ARBITRATORS— HOW SWORN 

the amount of compensation to which the owner or oc- 
cupant shall be entitled. The notice mentioned in this 
section shall be according to form, to be obtained upon 
application from the Gold Commissioner for the district 
in which the lands in question lie, and shall, when practi- 
cable, be personally served on such owner or his agent, 
if known, or occupant, and after reasonable efforts have 
been made to effect personal service without success, 
then such notice shall be served upon the owner or 
agent within a period to be fixed by the Gold Commis- 
sioner before the expiration of the time limited in such 
notice. If the proprietor refuses or declines to appoint 
an arbitrator, or when, for any other reason, no arbitrator 
is appointed by the proprietor in the time limited there- 
for in the notice provided by this section, the Gold Com- 
missioner for the district in which the lands in question 
lie shall, on being satisfied by affidavit that such notice 
has come to the knowledge of such owner, agent, or 
occupant, or that such owner, agent, or occupant, will- 
fully evades the service of such notice, or cannot be 
found, and that reasonable efforts have been made to 
effect such service, and that the notice was left at the 
last place of abode of such owner, agent, or occupant, 
appoint an arbitrator on his behalf. 

"Twenty -fifth, (a) All arbitrators appointed under the 
authority of these regulations shall be sworn before a 
Justice of the Peace to the impartial discharge of the 
duties assigned to them, and they shall forthwith proceed 
to estimate the reasonable damages which the owner or 
occupant of such lands according to their several inter- 



CERTIFICATE OF ASSIGNMENT. 203 

ests therein shall sustain by reason of such prospecting 
and mining operations. 

"(b) In estimating such damages the arbitrators shall 
determine the value of the land, irrespectively of any 
enhancement thereof from the existence of mineral 
therein. 

"(c) In case such arbitrators cannot agree they may 
select a third arbitrator, and when the two arbitrators 
cannot agree upon a third arbitrator the gold commis- 
sioner for the district in which the lands in question lie 
shall select such third arbitrator. 

"(d) The award of any two such arbitrators made in 
writing shall be final, and shall be filed with the gold 
commissioner for the district in which the lands lie. 

"If any cases arise for which no provision is made in 
these regulations, the provisions of the regulations gov- 
erning the disposal of mineral lands other than coal 
lands, approved by his Excellency the Governor in coun- 
cil on the 9th of November, 1889, shall apply." 

The following is the form which a certificate of assign- 
ment of a placer claim assumes : 

"Form 'J.' 

"No. . 

" Department of the Interior. 

"Agency, , 18 — . 

"This is to certify that (B. C.) has (or have) filed an 
assignment in due form dated 18 — , and accom- 
panied by a registration fee of two dollars, of the grant 

to (A. B.) of , of the right to mine in 

(insert description of claim) for one year from 



204 RIGHTS CONVEYED. 

" This certificate entitles the said (B. C.) to all 

rights and privileges of the said (A. B.) in re- 
spect of the claim assigned — that is to say, the exclusive 
right of entry upon the said claim for the miner-like 
working thereof, and the construction of a residence 
thereon, and the exclusive rights to all proceeds there- 
from for the remaining portion of the year for which said 

claim was granted to the said (A. B.) — that is to 

say, until the , 18 — . 

" The said (B. C.) shall be entitled to the use 

of so much of the water naturally flowing through or 
past his (or their) claim, and not already lawfully appro- 
priated, as shall be necessary for the due working there- 
of, and to drain the claim free of charge. 

" This grant does not convey to the said (B.C.) 

any surface rights in said claim or any rights of owner- 
ship in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said 
grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is con- 
tinually and in good faith worked by the said (B. C.) or 
his (or their) associates. 

" The rights hereby granted are those laid down in 
the Dominion Mining Regulations, and are subject to all 
provisions of the said regulations, whether the same are 
expressed herein or not. 



' ' Gold Commissioner. 
A specimen application blank for grant for placer 
claim and affidavit of applicant is as follows : 
" Form H, 
, "I, (or we) of —— - — -, hereby apply under the Do- 



CLAIMS CONTINUED. 



205 



minion Mining Regulations for grant of a claim for placer 

mining as defined in the said regulations in (here 

describe locality), and I (or we) solemly swear : 

" First. That I (or we) am (or are) to the best of my 
(or our) knowledge and belief the first discoverer (or 
discoverers) of the said deposit ; or, 

"Second. That the said claim was previously granted 

to (here name the last grantee), but has remained 

unworked by the said grantee for not less than . 

" Third. That I (or we) am (or are) unaware that the 
land is other than vacant Dominion lands. 

" Fourth. That I (or we) did on the day of 

mark out on the ground in accordance in every 

particular with the provisions of the mining regulations 
for the Yukon River and its tributaries the claim for 
which I (or we) make this application, and that in so 
doing I (or we) did not encroach on any other claim or 
mining location previously laid out by any other person. 

"Fifth. That the same claim contains as nearly as I 

(or we) could measure or estimate an area of 

square feet, and that the description (and sketch, if any) 
of this date hereto attached signed by me (or us) sets 
(or set) forth in detail to the best of my (or our) know- 
ledge and ability its position, form, and dimensions. 

" Sixth. That I (or we) make this application in good 
faith to acquire the claim for the sole purpose of mining, 
prosecuted by myself (or us), or by myself and asso- 
ciates, or by my (or our) assigns. 

" Sworn before me ■ — , at - aaaa - this -« — ; .■ ' day 

of——, 18—. 

(Signature,) ".-«*» «««=»" 



2o6 PLACER CLAIM GRANT. 

A grant for a placer claim reads thus : 
" Form ' I.' 

" Department of the Interior, 

"Agency, , 18 — 

4< In consideration of the payment of the fee prescribed 
by clause 12 of the mining regulations of the Yukon 
River and its tributaries by (A. B.), accompany- 
ing his (or their) application No. , dated ; 

18 — , for a mining claim in (here insert descrip- 
tion of locality), the Minister of the Interior hereby 

grants to the said (A. B.), for the term of one 

year from the date hereof, the exclusive right of entry 
upon the claim (here describe in detail the claim). 

" Granted, For the miner-like working thereof and 
the construction of a residence thereon, and the exclu- 
sive right to all the proceeds derived therefrom. That 

the said (A. B.) shall be entitled to the use of so 

much water naturally flowing through or past his (or their 
claim, and not already lawfully appropriated, as shall be 
necessary for the due working thereof, and to drain his 
(or their) claim free of charge. 

" This grant does not convey to the said ■ — (A.B.) 

any surface right in the said claim or any right of owner- 
ship in the soil covered by the said claim, and the said 
grant shall lapse and be forfeited unless the claim is con- 
tinuously and in good faith worked by the said 

(A. B.) or his (or their) associates. 

" The rights hereby granted are those laid down in the 
aforesaid mining regulations and no more, and are sub- 



POWERS OF ASSEMBLY. 2 °7 

ject to all the provisions of the said regulations, whether 
the same are expressed herein or not. 



" Gold Commissioner? 

The local government of the Northwest Territories, 
now having a standing as a representative part of the 
Dominion of Canada, is in the hands of a legislative 
assembly. The territorial assembly is empowered to 
incorporate companies with purely territorial objects, 
except railway, steamship, canal, transportation, tele- 
graph, insurance, and street railway companies. Ap- 
plications for charters for companies not coming within 
the classes thus excepted must be made directly to 
the Dominion Government 

Those companies which are incorporated by the terri- 
torial government are licensed to do business by the 
issue of letters patent given by the lieutenant-governor 
under a general enactment known as " The Companies' 
Ordinance," which is about the same thing as " The 
Companies' Act," of the Dominion Parliament. The 
stipulations of the territorial law not held in common 
with that of the Dominion are as follows : 

i. The number of applicants for charters must be at 
least three. 

2. One month's notice must be given in the Terri- 
torial Gazette, and in the local news sheets which are 
published nearest to the chief place of business of the 
company in the territories. 

3. The petition may be presented at any time within 
two months from the last publication of the notice. 



208 



FEES REQUIRED. 



4„ The number of directors shall not be less than 
three, nor more than nine. 

The fees which the territorial enactment call for upon 
the issuing of letters patent or upon the filing by a for- 
eign corporation of its charter are as follows : 

When capital stock is $400,000 and upwards, $200 ; 
when capital stock is $200,000 and under $400,000, $1 50 ; 
when capital stock is $100,000 and under $200,000, $100 ; 
when capital stock is $50,000 and under $100,000, $50 ; 
when capital stock is $40,000 and under $50,000, $40 ; 
when capital stock is $10,000 and under $40,000, $30 ; 
when capital stock is under $10,000, $20 — in addition to 
advertising charges. 

All joint stock companies and corporations other than 
those incorporated under it or by the Parliament of 
Canada, or insurance companies licensed thereby, shall, 
before proceeding to do business in the territories, file 
in the office of the lieutenant-governor a certified copy 
of its charter of incorporation authenticated as such by 
its president and secretary, failing in which said com- 
pany shall incur a penalty of $500, to be recovered at 
the suit of the lieutenant-governor in any civil court in 
the territories. 

The public land laws of the United States do not ap- 
ply to Alaska, and neither do the coal land regulations, 
which are distinct from the mineral regulations. The 
Territory of Alaska is expressly excluded from the oper- 
ations of the public land and coal laws by provisions of 
the laws themselves. The Hon. Bruo-er Hermann, Com- 
missioner of the United States General Land, Office, has 



MINERAL LAND LAWS. 200. 

authorized the statement that the following laws are ap- 
plicable to the territory : 

First. The mineral land laws of the United States. 

Second. Town-site laws, which provide for the incor- 
poration of town sites and acquirement of title thereto 
from the United States Government by the town-site 
trustees. 

Third. The laws providing for trade and manufactures, 
giving each qualified person 160 acres of land in a square 
and compact form. 

The territories have no title to the unappropriated 
minerals in the public lands. Prior to the Act of Con- 
gress of July 26, 1866, the United States had not done 
anything which amounted to a dedication to the public 
of the minerals in the public lands. Congress, prior to 
1866, passed some acts reserving mineral lands from 
sale, but did nothing else in regard to the mineral lands. 
In July, 1866, a general act was passed, throwing open 
to exploration and purchase by any citizen of the United 
States, or anyone who has declared his intention to be- 
come such, all the mineral lands in the public domain. 
This act, in connection with one passed the following 
year, created three distinct classes of titles : (1) a title 
by right of possession, which is the lowest grade of title 
known to the mineral laws ; (2) the equitable title, which 
accrues upon purchase and entry; and (3) the fee simple, 
which is acquired by patent. 

The original act provided that the mineral lands should 

be open to exploration and purchase by all citizens of the 

'United States and those who have declared their inten- 



2IO RIGHT TO MINB. 

tion to become such. In this point of citizenship being 
requisite to the exercise of their right, there has been 
no change in the law. 

No where in any of the various United States or 
State codes is any distinction made on account of age 
or sex, and the female, who comes within the terms of 
the law, is capable of making a valid location as also is a 
minor. 

The right to mine can be given, whether by State or 
federal laws, only in public lands. When the lands have 
become the property of an individual, the government's 
right over them is gone. 

There are in the United States three sources of bind- 
ing regulations as regards mines and mining : (i) the 
Federal laws, as enacted by Congress ; (2) the State 
and Territorial laws, as enacted by the State and Terri- 
torial legislatures ; and (3) the community laws, as 
enacted by a miners' meeting. They take precedence 
in the order named. Up to 1866, all mineral lands were 
held by virtue of compliance with the third class named. 
There were no absolute titles recognized by the Govern- 
ment. In other words, there were no mineral lands, 
prior to 1866, which had passed beyond the control of 
the Government. The act of 1 866 gave practical recog- 
nition to the laws of the miners' community, and titles 
were issued accordingly. The regulations of the com- 
munity are still recognized as being official. 

The character of the mineral lands open • to explora- 
tion was not designated by the Act of 1866, but in 1872 
an act was passed stipulating that it must contain "valu- 



STATUTE PROVISIONS. 2ft 

able mineral deposits." Non-mineral lands may be 
located as mill sites, either in connection with a lode 
location or separate therefrom, but only to the extent of 
ten acres. Mineral lands are not subject to entry and 
settlement under the homestead acts. The statutes de- 
fine a placer to be any form of deposit, except veins of 
quartz or other rock in place. Where a person is in 
possession of a placer claim, which includes one or more 
lodes or veins, he must, in his application for a patent, 
state that fact, or the lodes will be excluded from his 
patent, provided that they are known to exist at the 
time of such application. If they are not known to exist 
at the time, then the patent for the placer ground will 
convey all the mineral and other deposits within the 
boundaries thereof. If made on surveyed lands, the 
location must conform to the United States surveys as 
near as possible ; but where they cannot be so made, a 
survey and plat may be made as on unsurveyed lands. 

In many of the codes it is stipulated that the vein or 
lode must not only be located, but laid bare, exposed to 
view, and this for some distance along its course. 

Under the Act of 1866, no single locator could claim 
more than two hundred feet on the same vein, except 
that an additional two hundred feet was allowed to the 
discoverer of the vein, nor should a patent issue for more 
than one vein or lode. No association or persons, how- 
ever large, could take up more than three thousand feet 
on any one ledge. 

The Act of 1872, changed this by providing that no 
claim located after that date should exceed fifteen hun- 



a 12 VALID CLAIMS. 

dred feet along the middle of the vein at the surface, nor 
should it exceed in width three hundred feet. It further 
provided that no mining regulation should ever limit the 
width of the location to less than twenty-five feet on each 
side of the middle of the vein. 

Most of the states and territories have cut down the 
Federal figures on the size of claims and in some states, 
notably Colorado, they vary with the different camp. It 
is not necessary that the vein should lie along the middle 
of the claim. It is a miner's trick to make the vein 
almost form the boundary on one side, and by so doing 
another vein on the opposite side can thus be brought 
within the boundary of the claim. 

A valid location of a mining claim can be made only 
when the ground is open to exploration and appropri- 
ation. Discovery and appropriation are the sources of 
right and development the condition of continued pos- 
session. In taking up a claim usually one hundred dol- 
lars worth of work must be done before the miner gets 
a standing in the eyes of the miners' community. This 
amount of work must be done each succeeding year until 
the patent is granted. This is supposed to show his 
good intentions. The digging of a hole ten feet deep in 
most settlements is taken as a guarantee of good faith. 
This amount of work done, the claim can be recorded on 
the camp's record books. A year from this date must 
elapse before application can be made to the Federal 
Government for letters patent. In the meantime five 
hundred dollars worth of work must have been put in 
on the claim. Application for letters having been made 



REQUIREMENTS BY CONGRESS. 2T 3 

the surveys are made by the Federal authorities, and 
every chance given for contesting the validity of the 
claim before the miner enters upon his undisputed pos- 
session. 

The certificates of location issued by the camp re- 
corder — an official elected by the miners' meeting, are 
presumptive evidence of discovery, and every reasonable 
presumption should be indulged in in favor of the integ- 
rity of the locations. 

All that is required by the acts of congress is that the 
location shall be along the vein or lode ; that it shall be 
distinctly marked on the ground so that its boundaries 
can be readily traced ; that the record shall contain such 
description by reference to some natural object or per- 
manent monument as will identify the claim, and that all 
the lines shall be parallel. All other details are left 
to be governed by the rules and regulations of the 
miners in each district, which are valid and effectual if 
not inconsistent with the act of congress or any State 
law. 

The acts of congress do not require that any notice 
shall be posted on the claim, only that one shall be re- 
corded. But all rules and regulations of miners and the 
statutes of most states and territories do require the 
posting of such notice on the ground as well as its record 
in the proper office. The verification of the location 
notice must state the date of the location of the mine. 

While the acts of congress do not expressly require a 
record of a mining location, they provide that all records, 
if such exist or are required by any mining regulation, 



2 14 MINER'S REQUIREMENTS. 

shall contain the name or names of the locators, the date 
of the location and such description of the claim located 
by reference to some natural object or permanent monu- 
ment as will identify the claim. As has been stated, the 
miners in each district may enact additional requirements 
which shall nowise infringe on the laws of the state or 
nation. In all mining districts calls for meetings must 
be signed by at least six miners. 

It is further provided in the statutes that any one run- 
ning a tunnel for the development of a vein or for the 
discovery of mines, shall have the same right of posses- 
sion of all veins or lodes on the line of each tunnel within 
three thousand feet of the face thereof, which shall be 
discovered on such tunnel and which were not previously 
known to exist, as if the discovery was made from the 
surface. If other parties shall, while such tunnel is being 
prosecuted with reasonable diligence, locate on the line 
of such tunnel, any vein not appearing on the surface, 
such location shall be invalid. A failure for six months 
to prosecute work on the tunnel constitutes an aband- 
onment of all undiscovered veins on the line thereof. 

The question of abandonment is principally one of 
intention, whether the ground was left by the locator 
without any intention of returning and making a future 
use of it. Forfeiture means the loss of a previously 
acquired right to mine certain ground, by a failure to 
perform certain acts or observe certain rules, and differs 
from abandonment in that it involves no question of intent. 
A failure to perform the annual work required by statute 
works a forfeiture of the mining claim, and the same 



SUBJECT TO RE-LOCATION. 2 I 7 

becomes open to re-location, unless the original locators, 
heirs, assigns or legal representatives, resume work 
upon such claim before a re-location has been made. A 
failure to comply with local rules or customs works a 
forfeiture, if the local rules so provide. To suffer tail- 
ings to run away, without any effort to retain or confine 
them, constitutes an abandonment of them. 

Where the owner of a mining claim has failed to com- 
ply with the statutory requirements, or the claim is for- 
feited by reason of non-observance of any local rule or 
custom, the same is subject to re-location. 

Any person may then enter peaceably upon the claim 
for the purpose of making a location thereof, unless the 
original claimant has resumed work thereon. 

A re-location is made in the same manner as an orig- 
inal location. And the re-locator of an abandoned min- 
ing claim has the same time to perform the acts required 
by law or custom as the original locator had. A re- 
location is an admission of the validity of the original 
claim, and also a claim of forfeiture, as to the original 
locator. A party may, under proper circumstances, re- 
locate his own claim, or that which he holds in common 
with others. 

Priority of location confers the better title; where both 
parties rely on possession alone, priority of possession 
gives the better right. 

Where veins intersect or cross each other, the prior 
locator shall be entitled to all ore or mineral contained 
withLi the space of intersection, the subsequent locator 
being entitled to a right of way through said space ; 



2 1 8 THE LOCATION LINES. 

where two or more veins unite, the oldest location takes 
the vein below the point of union, including all the 
space of intersection. 

Those who have created a mining - district may change 
its size or boundaries if vested rights are not thereby 
affected. A mining corporation may be represented at 
meetings in mining districts by any of its officers or its 
agents. 

One who has made location in accordance with law is 
entitled, so long as he complies with the laws of the 
United States and with State, territorial and local regu- 
lations not in conflict threewith, to the exclusive right of 
possession and enjoyment of all the surface included 
within the lines of his location, and all veins, lodes and 
ledges throughout their entire depth, the top or apex of 
which lies inside of such surface lines extended down- 
ward vertically, although such veins, lodes, or ledges 
may so far depart from a perpendicular in their down- 
ward course as to extend outside of the side lines of the 
location, but such rights shall not be extended beyond 
the end lines of the location projected in their own di- 
rection till they intersect the veins or ledges. This is 
called the apex rule. 

Until a patent issues, the fee to mineral lands in the 
public domains remains in the United States. But any 
person coming within the provision of the acts of Congress 
acquires a right to purchase them from the government 
by complying with those acts. 

The applicant for a patent must file an application 
under oath in the proper land office, showing a compli- 



IN THE LAND OFFICE. 2 1 9 

ance with the law, together with a plat and field notes, 
made by or under direction of the United States sur- 
veyor-general, of the claim or claims, and shall post a 
copy of the plat, together with a notice of the applica- 
tion, on the land ; he must file an affidavit of the postino- 
of such notice and a copy of the notice itself in the land 
office. The register of the land office shall post the 
notice in his office for sixty days, and shall publish it 
for the same period in the newspaper nearest to the claim. 

The claimant must also file with the register the sur- 
veyor-general's certificate that $500 worth of labor has 
been expended or improvements made upon the claim 
by the applicant or his grantors. 

At the end of sixty days the applicant shall be entitled 
to a patent upon payment of $5 an acre, if the claim is 
for a lode location, and $2.50 an acre if for a placer loca- 
tion, unless during said sixty days an adverse claim shall 
have been lodged with the register and receiver of the land 
office in which the application is filed ; after which time 
no objection to the issuance of the patent made by third 
parties shall be heard. Any adverse claims must be filed 
within the sixty days, and must be under oath of the 
adverse claimant. Thereupon proceedings shall be stayed 
until the controversy shall have been settled by a court 
of competent jurisdiction. 

The adverse claimant must, within thirty days after fil- 
ing his adverse claim, commence proceedings in a court 
of competent jurisdiction to determine his rights, and 
prosecute the same, with reasonable diligence, to find 
judgment, or his claim will be deemed as void. The 



2 20 AN EXCEPTION. 

party in whose favor judgment is rendered shall, upon 
filing a copy of the judgment roll with the register, and 
complying with the other provisions for obtaining a 
patent, be entitled to a patent for the claim or such por- 
tion thereof as the decision of the court shows him enti- 
tled to. These sections do not apply where a person, 
before the required publication has gone through all the 
regular proceedings required, to obtain a patent for min- 
eral land and has received his patent. 

The transferable character of mining locations has 
always been recognized by the courts and the title of the 
grantee enforced. It is not necessary that the transfer 
should be in writing, as a transfer of the possession is 
sufficient, except in those States that have statutes re- 
quiring that the conveyance must have the same form 
and solemnity as the conveyance of any other real 
estate. The patent is also assignable. There is no 
implied warranty in the sale of a mining claim. 

The following definitions of mining terms are recog- 
nized by the statutes : 

Ore — Minerals in natural condition. 

Lode or Vein — A flattened mass of metallic or earthy 
matter, differing materially in its nature from the rocks 
or strata in which it occurs ; a fissure in the earth's crust 
filled with mineral matter, or aggregations of mineral 
matter, containing ores in fissures. The term, as used 
in the acts of Congress, is applicable to any zone or belt 
of mineralized rock lying within boundaries clearly sep- 
arating it from the neighboring rock. The words vein, 
lode and ledge are nearly synonymous. 



COMMON MINING TERMS. 22 1 

A Mine is a way or passage underground, a subter- 
ranean duct course or passage, and is distinguished from 
a "quarry," which is a pit wrought from the surface. 

Face of Tunnel — This term, as used in section 2323 
of the Revised Statutes, is held to be the first working 
face formed in the tunnel, and to signify the point at 
which the tunnel actually enters cover. 

Location and Mining Claim — These terms do not 
always mean the same thing. A mining claim is a parcel 
of land containing precious metal in its soil or rock. A 
location is the act of appropriating such parcel according 
to certain established rules. But, in time, the location 
came to be considered among miners as synonomous 
with the mining claim originally appropriated. A mining 
claim may include one or several locations. 

Apex — The end or edae of a vein nearest the surface. 

Level — The word, as used in mining, means a work- 
ing, and is not necessarily a plane. 

Dip — The direction or inclination towards the depth. 

Along the Vein — Along the longitudinal course or 
strike. 

Placer Claim — Ground within defined boundaries 
which contains mineral in its earth, sand or gravel ; 
ground that includes valuable deposits not in place — that 
is, not fixed in rock, but which are in a loose state, and 
may, in most cases, be collected by washing or amalga- 
mation without milling. 

The act approved May 17, 1884, providing a civil gov- 
ernment for Alaska, has this language as to mines and 
mining privileges ; 



222 APPLIED TO ALASKA. 

" The laws of the United States relating- to mining 
claims and rights incidental thereto shall, on and after 
the passage of this act, be in full force and effect in said 
district of Alaska, subject to such regulations as may be 
made by the Secretary of the Interior and approved by 
the President." 

" Parties who have located mines or mining privileges 
therein, under the United States laws applicable to the 
public domain, or have occupied or improved or exer- 
cised acts of ownership over such claims, shall not be 
disturbed therein, but shall be allowed to perfect title by 
payment so provided for." 

In the Klondike country the claim is generally 500 
feet for gulch diggings from rimrock to rimrock ; but in 
some gulches not paying well an effort is being made to 
stake claims 1,320 feet long. Crowded creeks, too, are 
staked 300 feet to the claim, and no man is allowed to 
stake more than one claim in his own name, save the 
discoverer, who is allowed 1,000 feet. 

As to the size and boundary of districts, it has been 
the custom along the Yukon to consider each tributary 
stream as a separate district, and for each such district 
one recorder is elected. He is paid for his services by 
the collection of fees. Formerly, the fee for each record 
made was $5, but this has recently been raised to $15. 



CHAPTER X. 

THE NATIVE POPULATION. 

Dark-skinned People Found by the Miner in the Frozen North — Eskimo, 
Athabascan and Thlinget — Uncertainty About the Origin of the 
Innuits — The Language and Customs of a Curious Race — Strange 
Modes of Life Near the Arctic Circle — The Mysteries of the Totem 
Pole — Dead Houses of the Stick Indians— Miners of Gold who Knew 
the Klondike Field Long Before the White Man Entered the Land. 

THE native population of Alaska has an interesting 
and romantic history, but much of it is shrouded 
in a mystery unusual, even in the case of a barbaric and 
ignorant race. It seems probable that the Innuits are 
of Asiatic origin, but authorities differ on this point. 
Professor Dall, in his work on the distribution and origin 
of the native races of the Northwestern territory, states 
his belief that the Alaska Innuits once inhabited the 
interior of America and that they slowly retreated to 
their present residence before the inroads of Southern 
tribes. 

Mr. L. M. Turner, who spent many years among the 
islands of the Bering Sea and along the coast, in his re- 
port to the Smithsonian Institute takes the ground that 
the Innuits or Eskimo are of the same race as the 
natives of Greenland, and he finds no difficulty in tracing 
the relationship. 

Professor Otis T. Mason, in common with many other 

223 



2 24 MONGOLIAN ORIGIN POSSIBLE. 

authorities, asserts that the Alaska Innuits are of Mon- 
golian origin, as shown by their physical as well as 
mental developments. 

Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, the well-known authority of 
Philadelphia, in commenting on the last stated view, says: 
" A favorite theory of some writers has been that they 
migrated out of Asia by way of Bering Sea, but those 
who have studied their culture on the spot do not advo- 
cate this opinion. These observers have, without excep- 
tion, reached the conclusion that the Innuits were origi- 
nally an inland people, that their migrations were toward 
the North and West, and that they have been gradually 
forced to the inhospitable climes they occupy by the 
pressure of foes. Dr. Rink, who passed many years 
among them, would look for their early home elsewhere 
in Alaska, but Mr. John Murdock and Dr. Franz Boas, 
two of our best authorities on this tribe, incline to the 
view that their primal home was to the south of Hudson 
Bay, whence they separated into three principal hordes, 
the one passing into Labrador and reaching Greenland, 
the second moving to the Arctic Sea and the third to 
Alaska. These form respectively the Chiglit, Greenland 
and Cadjak dialects of the common tongue." 

The Alaska Innuits are, at this time, essentially a 
maritime and Arctic people, occupying the coast and 
adjacent islands from the Straits of Belle Isle, on the 
Atlantic, to Icy Bay, at the foot of Mount St. Elias, on 
the Pacific, and extending their wanderings and settle- 
ments as far uo as 80 degrees north latitude, where they 



ONCE ON THE DELAWARE. 225 

are by far the northernmost inhabitants of the earth. 
From the reports of the early Norse explorers, and from 
the character of relics found on the Atlantic Coast, it 
does not seem improbable that they once extended as 
far south as the mouth of the Delaware River. 

In appearance the Innuits of pure blood are of medium 
or slightly undersize, dark in color, the nose prominent 
and sometimes aquiline, hair dark brown or black, mod- 
erately strong on the face, and the eyes are dark brown 
and occasionally blue. The skull is generally long, but 
is subject to extensive variations, ranging from almost 
globular to exceptionally long and narrow specimens. 

In spite of the hardships of their life, the Innuits are 
of a singularly placid and cheerful temperament, good- 
natured among themselves and much given to mirth and 
laughter. The ingenuity with which they have learned 
to overcome difficulties of their situation is quite sur- 
prising. In a country where wood and water are scarce, 
the temperature very low much of the time, and yielding 
for them no edible fruit or vegetable, they manage to 
live and thrive. Their principal source of supply is the 
sea. They build boats called kayaks, which are made 
from the bones of the walrus and seal skin. Their 
winter houses are of blocks of snow, laid up in arch 
shape to form a dome. In some instances they have 
been shrewd enough to form windows with sheet ice. 
These homes are warmed by means of stone lamps, fed 
with blubber oil. They clothe themselves in bird skins 
and furs, and they show much skill in the preparation of 



226 DOGS ARE PLENTIFUL. 

a sort of leather. Dogs are plentiful among the Innuits, 
and are useful both as beasts of burden and for hunting. 
With their tools of bone and stone, the Indians fashion 
many curious and useful articles, displaying some invent- 
ive faculty and an eye not wholly devoid of artistic qual- 
ities. Most authorities regard their picture writing as 
far superior to other similar work found north of Mex- 
ico, in the delineation of objects of all kinds, and especi- 
ally in the matter of animal forms. 

In the winter, when the Indians are confined much to 
their houses, they amuse themselves with music and 
song, of which they are very fond. They also have a 
large stock of imaginative tales and some of the usual 
Indian legends. A gifted singer enjoys great popularity, 
as does the story-teller. Some of the poems known to- 
day among these Indians are believed to be of great 
antiquity. As is the case with other tribes of the Indian 
race, their singing is not regarded by the white man as 
melodious, but that is a matter of opinion. As a fact, 
showing how strong a hold song has upon the hearts of 
this strange tribe, it is told that when trouble occurs 
between these individuals or families, instead of settling 
differences by physical means, a kind of singing-bee is 
held. An evening is appointed, and the aggrieved par- 
ties sing at each other in the presence of an invited 
audience. At the close, the latter decides in favor of 
one or the other, and the verdict ends the trouble. 

For their religion, these people have a belief in a 
Supreme being and in a great army of inferior spirits, 



THE INNUIT RELIGION. 227 

and also a long list of evil monsters. They worsn.p the 
former and endeavor to propitiate the latter. They 
believe that each individual is endowed with two souls, 
one of which is irrevocably connected with this earth 
and passes from father to son. The other soul goes at 
death to either a good land within the earth or a bad one 
in the sky, thus reversing the usual order. The lights 
of the aurora borealis, so familiar to the Eskimo, are 
believed to be signs of the presence of spirits in the 
world beyond. These people have authorized priests, 
who occupy a place somewhat similar to the sorcerers 
and conjurers of the Orient. The language of these 
Indians is highly agglutinative, the affixes being joined 
to the end of the word. The verb is most complex, 
having over 3,000 modified forms, each one different 
from the others and all invariable. It is like the Greek 
in its three numbers — singular, dual and plural. 

The Aleutian branch of this race occupies the long 
chain of islands of that name. It is now a certainty that 
this race here and elsewhere is dying out, There are 
now only 14,000 of them in Alaska, whereas in the last 
century the island district alone had some 30,000 souls. 
Statistics show that the average number of children 
resulting from each marriage is only two, and it requires 
double this number to keep a population stationary. 

The Eskimo are by far the largest race of Indians in 
Alaska, but there are also two other important tribes, 
and these in turn are divided into several classes. The 
Athabascans, familiarly known as the Stick Indians, are 



228 NUMBERS OF TWO TRIBES. 

the interior inhabitants, and they number in all only 
3,439. The Thlingets, numbering 4,737, occupy the 
southern coast country for the most part, but some of 
them have followed the gold seekers to the interior, as 
have also the Eskimo. 

The Chilcoot Indians, who pack him over the pass 
bearing their name, are but an offspring of the Chilcats, 
one of the most powerful of the Thlinget tribe. After 
taking up the line of travel down the lakes, from Lin- 
deman to the Yukon, the miner's only native companions 
are the Sticks. They predominate on the Yukon 
numerically and in every other way, inasmuch as the 
1,500 Eskimos who inhabit its basin are a good deal 
more reserved, and do not care so much for the white 
man's society or his gold as do their Stick neighbors. 

A writer who has some experience with these Indian 
packers says of them ; " The Indians are even more 
capricious and uncertain than the weather. They have 
been reaping a harvest for several years by packing over 
the pass for the Yukoners, and they are very shrewd in 
barter, and they have naturally come to know the value 
of combination to sustain prices. Members of other 
tribes coming in to do packing are held in the same 
division as are ' scabs ' by the labor unions in the States, 
and so far the Chilcats have been able to almost name 
their own prices for work. 

"A Stick Indian, 'whose Boston name is Tom,' as his 
letter of recommendation had it, came with his squaw 
from the interior to do packing. He had made a bargain 



A STICK'S SHREWDNESS. 229 

with the geological party, who had waited several days, 
to pack from Sheep Camp to Lake Lindeman at $9 a 
hundred pounds, when the Chilcats held the price at $1 1. 
The Stick and his squaw had their bundles made up and 
were just ready to start, and one of the white men was 
to accompany them. A few other Indians were standing 
around scratching, which is a sign of absolute pre- 
occupation of mind, and apparently taking no interest in 
the proceedings. Tom raised his load to adjust it to his 
back, and then suddenly put it down again. Without a 
word he took off his pack straps, put the goods back in 
the tent, and sat down, and no amount of questioning 
could get even a sign out of him. A partial explanation 
came when, twenty minutes later, a number of Chilcats 
from over the pass came into camp. They had a letter 
from the guide, advising the party to pay the price of 1 1 
cents a pound, but it has ever since been a puzzle to us 
how Tom got the word before the Indians were within a 
mile of us." 

The Thlingets, physically, are a strong and sometimes 
tall people, light in color, with black or slightly reddish 
hair ; eyes horizontal and aquiline noses. They have 
developed an uncommon appreciation of property, which 
is usually taken to indicate a high order of intellect. 
Their aristocracy and the selection of their chiefs are 
entirely on a property basis. The richest obtain the 
highest places. Dr. Brinton says of them and their 
habits : " The Thlinget villages are permanent, the 
houses solidly constructed of wood, sometimes with 



23O THE THUNGET HOME. 

the additional protection of a palisade. The carving 
and painting upon them are elaborate, the subjects 
being caricatures of faces, men and animal forms. 
The chiefs erect, at one side of their doors, carved and 
painted 'totem posts,' some of which are nearly fifty 
feet high. Seaworthy canoes are hewn from the trunks 
of the red cedar, hides are dressed and the leather 
worked into a variety of articles ; lamps, mortars and 
utensils were formerly chipped or ground out of stone, 
and they are handy in beating out ornaments of silver 
and copper. The Thlingets have always been active 
merchants, and when the first navigators visited their 
villages they were surprised to find them in possession 
of iron knives and other articles obtained by trade over 
East Cape or from the South. The usual currency was 
the dentalium shell, found along the coast. One of the 
staple articles of trade were slaves. They were bought 
from the neighboring tribes and treated with great 
cruelty. 

"Thlinget mythology is rich, having a coherent cre- 
ation and deluge myth, the principal figure in which is 
Jelchs, the raven. He is the Promethean fire-bringer, 
and sets free the sun, moon and stars from their prisons. 
The religious rites are in the hands of priests, who, as 
usual, exert a great and injurious influence." 

The numerical strength of this once powerful tribe 
has been constantly declining, due very largely. to epi- 
demics of small-pox, black measles and grippe. The 
eleven tribes of this race were estimated by the Russians 



DECREASING IN NUMBERS. 23 1 

as numbering 25,000. Halleck's estimate of 1869 puts 
the number at 12,000 or 15,000, and in the last thirty 
years they have been reduced much more than half. The 
word, Thlinget, is their name for "man" or "people." 
The Russians called them Koloschians, from the Aleut 
name Kaluska, little trough, because of the labrette 
worn in the lower lip. There are many legends among 
them of supernatural origin, floods, a sole surviving 
couple, and so on. They have no legend to point to an 
Asiatic origin, as has been claimed, but there is a tradi- 
tion among them that they came from the South. Their 
propitiation of evil spirits, their belief in the transmigra- 
tion of souls, their worshipful regard for the ashes of 
their ancestors and other customs, would seem to indi- 
cate Asiatic origin. Some of their myths, their carving 
and constructions, as well as many of their words, are 
Aino, while their methods, tools and postures at work 
are like the Japanese. The totem poles, for which they 
are famous, are like the New Zealand tiki, and there are 
many notes of resemblance in their rites to those of the 
Maori people. Their sun and nature worship with offer- 
ings to the wind and mountains, approach the Aztec cus- 
toms. They have the same dances and masks as the 
Zunis, and their totem pole is also familiar in the history 
of the Delaware, Omaha and Huron Indians. The 
Thlinget people look down with contempt on their Stick 
brethren. 

Totemism is the base of the Thlinget social organiza- 
tion, the tribal mark or totem distinguishing the dwelling 



232 TOTHM'ISM AMONO TUh) INDIANS. 

and all other belongings. Only animal totems occur, 
and they live under the guardianship of these creatures 
who are believed to have been the ancestors of the race. 
The crow and raven, representing the creative principle, 
and the wolf the lighting agent, are the great totems of 
the coast, and each one is subdivided into clans. Men 
may not marry women of their own totem, that bond 
being stronger than the one of the family or tribe. Men 
often elect individual totems, when inspired by dreams, 
during the fasts preceding their majority and initiation into 
the clan. These elective totems are added to the clan 
and family tokens, which accounts for the storied images 
on the poles. Contrary to the belief of many, these 
poles have no religious significance, and are not made 
the subject of idolatrous worship. The designs are dis- 
played in much the same way as the nobility of civiliza- 
tion parade their coats of arms. 

Thlinget language is the harshest of all coast tongues. 
Horatio Hale has noted that these harsh tongues cease 
at the Columbia River, where the climate changes so 
markedly. The common speech has been much cor- 
rupted by Russian, English and Chinook. Lieutenant 
Emmons has found among them evidences of an older 
language, a classic to all Thlingets. Mr. Charles 
Walcott notes "the Japanese idioms, constructions, 
honorific, separative and agglutinative particles." Like 
the Japanese, they cannot pronounce "1," and like the 
Chinese, they cannot use the "r." Captain Cook first 
noted the txl terminations of the A/tec. The country in 



THEY LIVE IN CANOES. 235 

which they live is one of the rainiest parts of the earth, 
and these people spend their lives in canoes. The 
result is seen in their tongue, which has been compared 
to the speech of a man with a long-standing cold. It is 
full of hoarse, gutteral, clicking sounds, and the person 
who attempted to take it down by phonetic signs would 
be balked at every word. 

In common with all the northwest coast people the 
Thlingets have inherited a magnificent development of 
the shoulders, chest and arms. This is undoubtedly the 
result of generations of canoe paddling. The rest of the 
body is, however, usually stunted and deformed. They 
are bow-legged and shambling in gait, moving much as 
aquatic birds do on land. It has never been the custom 
among them to flatten or elongate the skull, but they 
follow the barbarous practice of carrying large nose, lip 
and ear ornaments. The labrette was formerly the 
feminine badge of rank and age, but it is only seen on 
elderly women now. Young girls are still, as formerly, 
introduced socially at a certain age, just as their Cauca- 
sian sisters are. The debutante's lower lip was formerly 
pierced and a copper or silver pin worn there. After 
marriage the pin was replaced by a bone or wood stud, 
which gradually increased in size until dowagers wore a 
huge block, sometimes concealing most of the lower 
part of the face. 

Painting and tattooing have been universal. They 
paint at present only for dances and potlatches, but con- 
tinue to black their faces as a summer protection from 



236 FACE BLACKING FORBIDDEN. 

the sun and insects. This coating is a mixture of seal 
oil and soot. Governor Swineford found it desirable to 
forbid this face blackening, as it proved a hindrance to 
the enforcement of laws, offenders thereby hiding their 
identity. There are sometimes notable exceptions to 
the regulation heavy, flat jaws and high cheeked faces. 
Some of the women show strong faces of more regular 
mould. Woman is the family arbiter and indeed is 
supreme in every way, the family possessions descend- 
ing through her. Polygamy is quite commonly practiced. 
Upon a man's death his widows pass to the oldest male 
in his mother's, family. Younger brothers and nephews 
are allowed to escape the widows if they so desire by 
paying a good round sum in blankets. 

The Thlingets have their political societies. All of the 
same totem contribute to the potlatches of their chief, 
working sometimes for years to make an extravagant 
display. The potlatch is usually given at the full of the 
moon, and the host's clan and totem do not accept gifts. 
The seating and serving of guests is as precisely 
arranged as at the dinner of a diplomat. Hospitalities 
are invariably returned in kind. They are inveterate 
dancers, and songs and dramatic representations go 
with everything from a feast to a funeral. They have 
many games of chance, the favorite being a fan-tan 
played with fifty-two cylindrical sticks differently marked. 
The sticks are either drawn and matched, or players 
guess the number, position and odd or even of those the 
dealer hides under a mass of cedar shreds. The dealer 
and players join in a chant. 



CURING THE SICK. 237 

In illness the Thlinget sends for his shaman or medi- 
cine man, who, continuing his fasts alone in the forests 
throughout life, continues to receive inspiration from his 
guardian spirit. He uses chants and other means for 
curing. The missionaries have done much to stop the 
old practice of cremation of the dead. Many of the 
tribes have long known the art of forging copper, and 
gold and silver are plentiful among them. 

The Athabascan or Stick Indians, of the interior, rank 
intellectually below their neighbors. Their temperament 
is inclined to be gloomy and morose and, in spite of their 
apparent stolidity, they are much given to panics and 
temporary hallucinations. Their chiefs are chosen with- 
out formality, either on account of their daring in war 
or for the number of presents they distribute. Their 
entire number scattered over the Yukon and Klondike 
countries is only 3,439. They make excellent bark 
canoes and a few implements. They have come much 
in contact with the miner of late years and have caught 
the gold fever. Many of them are engaged in either 
helping the white miners or digging for gold themselves 
in a desultory way. 

Some of the dead houses of the Sticks are exceed- 
ingly ornate with glass windows and some fanciful 
touches in carved and painted woodwork. The Sticks 
of the upper Yukon are cremationists, but are not very 
thorough in their work, as they want enough of the 
remains left to hold a satisfactory funeral over. Farther 
down the river the Indians are growing out of the cus- 



238 CURIOUS FUNERAL CUSTOMS. 

torn of cremating their dead. The Tinnehs of the mid- 
die Yukon bury their dead off-hand in a coffin in a shal- 
low grave, over which they then plant a tamarack tree. 
The roots of the tree encircle the coffin like the grasp of 
a hand, and are supposed to protect it against the rav- 
ages of wild beasts. The Eskimos place their departed 
ones in a rude box and then cover it over with a pile of 
stones, but usually this safeguard is not effective, and 
the ultimate casket of the deceased Eskimo is the polar 
bear that has jurisdiction over the district. The shamans, 
or medicine men, of the Eskimos, are allowed to choose 
their burial places, a privilege that is not accorded to 
every one, and they select ingeniously difficult places of 
access that their final sleep may be undisturbed ; as, for 
instance, a rocky pinnacle, which can only be reached by 
their devoted followers at the imminent risk of their 
lives in carrying out the request. 



CHAPTER XI. 

RESOURCES OF ALASKA. 

President Johnson's " ice-box " — Thirty-five years of Alaskan exports — Dense forests 
of spruce, cedar and pine — United States Department of Agriculture's Experi- 
mental station — Alaskan flora — Cranberries and other berries — Grain and 
grass growing — Bituminous coal — Marble — Big game of the interior — Bears 
the one-time terror of the Klondike — Foxes and other fur-coated Animals — 
The deer and their threatened extinction — Salmon six feet deep — The cod 
banks — Whaling. 

TIME alone can demonstrate the full magnitude of 
Alaska's resources. When it first came under the 
jurisdiction of the United States, it was generally believed 
that the dictates of diplomacy and statecraft were alone 
responsible for its purchase, and few there were who 
imagined that, before the century had run its course, 
Alaska would have paid for itself many times over. It 
was even suggested to President Johnson that he visit 
"this land of snow and merchantable ice." During the 
first five years of our possession, it made a return of eight 
per cent, on the investment. The two tiny Seal Islands 
paid four per cent, on the original $7,200,000, and in their 
first lease returned a sum equal to the purchase money to 
the Treasury. The gold mines, not including that taken 
out this year, have produced over $8,000,000, and in six 
years, 1884 to 1890, the salmon industry yielded $7,500,- 
000. The commerce of Alaska, in 1867, was reported to 
be $2,500,000 ; it is now ten times as great. In seals 
this country has received $35,000,000 in thirty years from 

(239) 



240 INDUSTRIES. 

its northwestern dominions. These figures show what a 
tremendous factor Alaska is in the world's rame of barter 
and trade. The industries thus far developed pertain 
mostly to the coast, but with the opening up of the Yukon 
country to the outside world, great things are naturally 
to be expected from that quarter. The following table 
gives in a concise form very close figures on the value of 
the eight leading Alaskan exports since the Territory 
passed into the hands of the United States: 

Furs $53,000,000 

Canned Salmon 10,000,000 

Whalebone.. 10,000,000 

Gold and Silver „ 6,000,000 

Whale Oil 3,000,000 

Codfish 1,600,000 

Salted Salmon 800,000 

Ivory 160,000 

In this table the gold exports do not include the pro- 
duct of this year's mining. 

The day is not far distant when the Alaskan lumber 
regions will be famous. It is estimated that the available 
timber now standing in the Territory might alone meet 
the ordinary demand of this continent for half a century. 
Though the extreme northern part of Alaska is treeless, 
its southern shores, both of the islands and the mainlands, 
are covered with a dense forest growth, the Aleutian 
group excepted. 

Southeastern Alaska is well timbered, the prevailing 
varieties being spruce and hemlock, red and yellow cedar, 
maple and birch. The spruce and hemlock found here 
are usually of large size, often a hundred feet high and 



TIMBER LANDS. 2 Al 

six and eiorht feet in diameter. Yellow cedar trees ei^ht 
feet in diameter have been cut in the southeastern por- 
tion of Alaska. It must certainly be a cedar of magnifi- 
cent proportions out of which the native Haidas can hew 
and construct a canoe seventy feet long, capable of carry- 
ing- one hundred men. 

This wood is a beautiful variety, admitting of high 
polish and especially adapted for the manufacture of fur- 
niture. The yellow cedar is fine for ship-building, and is 
torredo-proof; that is, it is impervious to that marine 
pest known as the boring worm. It may easily take the 
place of mahogany and other tropical and sub-tropical 
woods. The yellow cedar grows many feet in height, 
straight and clear, without any defect whatsoever. The 
wood, when polished, presents a beautiful yellowish hue 
and is hard and compact, though easily worked. Little is 
known of the extent of the yellow cedar in the interior, 
but no doubt explorations will discover considerable 
areas of this valuable wood. 

These virgin forests of Alaska, which have never felt 
the stroke of a white man's axe, are truly magnificent. 
They present a growth exceedingly dense and peculiar, the 
branches of the tall trees being often draped with long 
black and white moss, dry and fine as hair, which it resem- 
bles. This characteristic is similar to the effect produced 
by the Spanish moss in the thick woods of Louisiana. The 
fallen trees and stumps in these Alaskan forests are cov- 
ered with a bright green moss ten inches in thickness, and 
in the tangle of creeping vines are seen the deep red clus- 



242 VARIOUS KINDS. 

ters of the bunchberry. Good judges say the timber is 
as fine in quality as that of Oregon and Washington. 

From Sitka westward the forests become scrubby and 
the timber small in size, but alder and willow are found in 
many places. The timber line extends to a height of about 
1,500 feet. The timber along the lower portion of the 
Yukon is composed principally of willow, alder and Cot- 
tonwood. Towards Norton Sound it grows to a fair size. 
Spruce is also found, as a rule, on most streams empty- 
ing into the Yukon River and Behring Sea. The rivers 
entering the Arctic as far north as latitude sixty-seven 
degrees are more or less timbered with the same variety. 
Along Wood River there are some fine groves of large 
spruce timber, and back in the interior, and along the 
banks of the rivers on level stretches of country, fir 
timber is also found to a considerable extent. Dwarf 
spruce, cottonwood, alder and willow are also found in 
the Nashagak and Kuskoqum regions. The willow usu- 
ally found along the coast west of Mt. St. Elias is scrubby, 
but in the moraines of that mountain and along the delta 
of the Copper River it grows to a height of fifteen feet or 
even higher. In the vicinity of the Noatuk River, in 
latitude sixty-seven degrees north, spruce, birch, and 
cottonwood are found of a stunted growth, fit only for 
firewood and the construction of log-houses. The spruce 
which is found near running water is usually good 
sized and vigorous. 

It attains not unfrequently the height of fifty to one 
hundred feet, with a diameter of over three feet near the 
butt ; but the most common size is thirty or forty feet, and 



PREVAILING VANITY. 2/ .~ 

twelve to eighteen inches at the butt. It is quite durable. 
Many houses, twenty years old, built of this timber, when 
examined were found to contain a majority of sound 
logs; when used green, without proper seasoning, it will 
not last over fifteen years. These trees decrease in 
size and grow more sparingly near Fort Yukon, but are 
still large enough for most purposes. 

Several kinds of poplar are to be found in Alaska. But 
as timber, it has little value; the extreme softness of 
the wood is often taken advantage of by the natives 
with their rude iron or stone axes, to make small boards 
or other articles for use in their lodges. They also rub 
up with charcoal the down from the seed-pods for tinder. 

In the Yukon country, from Five Fingers all the way 
to Koserefski Mission, the timber growing along the 
banks is willow, alder, and spruce, the latter being 
the prevailing variety. It is generally scrubby, but 
many good-sized trees are to be found. The islands 
in the river from Five Fingers to the mouth are generally 
well-timbered, the larger islands being better wooded 
than the mainland. 

The Alaskan timber lands are, for the most part, 
quite convenient to the numerous fine harbors which 
line the coast, and where ships could be readily loaded. 
The lumber exports for 1885 amounted to $50,000. 

As far as definite information goes but little can be 
said about Alaska's future as a grain-growing, farm- 
ing, and gardening country. 

The United States Government, authorized by a special 
act of Congress, sent out during the past summer, an 



244 EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 

expedition whose object is to gather preliminary data 
with reference to the contemplated establishment of one 
or more agricultural experiment stations in that Arctic 
province. Congress has appropriated $5,000 to pay for 
the investigation, and under existing law an institution of 
this sort would be entitled to a subsidy of $15,000 per 
annum from the government. 

Botanist Allen, of the Department of Agriculture, and 
Dr. Killen, of the Oregon Agricultural College, with one 
or two others, compose the party. They will make 
a tour through the Sitkan region, and the Aleutian chain, 
looking for the most favorable place for the establish- 
ment of an experimental station. They will pay partic- 
ular attention to the great island of Kadiak, which is of 
such size, ninety miles long by sixty broad, that alone it 
might be a granary for the whole of Alaska. Two-thirds 
of it is treeless, and the fertility of the soil is evidenced 
by the extraordinary luxuriance of the grasses with which 
its hills are covered. This wealth of wild grasses is equal 
to anything that can be seen on the prairies of Iowa or 
Minnesota. 

The expedition will choose a location for at least one 
experimental station. When once it is started, the work 
of the establishment will be of a very elaborate and 
comprehensive description. It will be scientific farming, 
conducted with a view to finding out how the conditions 
of the region may be utilized to best advantage for the 
production of every possible field and garden crop. But 
this is not all, for it is desired to learn what domestic 
animals may be reared to advantage in Alaska. At the 



NO DOMESTIC ANIMALS. 24c; 

present time there are practically no domestic animals 
in the territory, though the country is well adapted for 
sheep, pigs, and goats, and in the Sitkan region, as well 
as on the islands of the Aleutian chain, cattle will keep 
fat all the year around without much care, subsisting on 
the nutritious grasses. Further to the north it would be 
necessary to give them shelter during two or three 
months of severest winter weather. Poultry can be 
raised to great advantage in Alaska. 

In short, Alaska is believed to be a country of great 
agricultural possibilities. The coastal belt and the low- 
lands of the Yukon region are covered as soon as spring 
arrives with a luxuriant growth of grass and flowers. 
Amongr the most valuable grasses is the familiar Ken- 
tucky blue grass, which grows as far north as Kotzebue 
Sound, and another is the blue-joint grass, reaching four 
or five feet in height. These make most excellent forage. 
Barley has been tried at Port Yukon in small patches, and 
has matured, though the straw was short. Rye and bar- 
ley ought to succeed, inasmuch as these grains are grown 
in very high latitudes in Europe. The Island of Kadiak 
is in the same latitude, with temperature and rainfall 
about equal, as a part of Scotland which produces much 
barley and rye. Oats are hardy and will grow very far 
north. 

The growth of plants in that far northern region is 
astonishingly rapid. The snow has hardly disappeared 
before a mass of herbage has sprung up, and spots which 
a few days before presented nothing but a white sheet 
are teeming with vegetation, producing leaves, flowers 



2 ,5 ALMOST TROPICAL LUXURIANCE- 

and fruit in quick succession. Indeed, during the short 
and hot summer the vegetation attains an almost tropi- 
cal luxuriance. Every plant is rushed as fast as possible 
to a ripening, in order that its seeds may be produced 
before the early frosts of autumn nip it. Plants, of course, 
are accustomed in temperate latitudes to sleep at night, 
and it is interesting to observe that the vegetation of 
Arctic Alaska pursues a similar habit for so many hours 
in each twenty-four, even though the sun is in the 
heavens for months together without sinking below the 
horizon, the somnolence being marked by drooping 
leaves. 

A singular phenomenon is observed on the shores of 
Escholtz Bay, in Kotzebue Sound, where bluffs of solid 
ice thirty to sixty feet in height are covered with a layer 
of soil in which, to use the words of the famous botanist, 
Dr. Seeman, " herbs and shrubs are flourishing with a 
luxuriance only equalled in more favored climes." One 
question to be investigated by the Alaskan experiment 
station will relate to the modifications of the rules of ordi- 
nary agriculture, which must be made to suit the latitude. 
Such modifications are adopted in Finland, which is so 
wet that the grass has to be transformed into hay by let- 
ting- the wind blow through it. 

There are practically no tree fruits suitable for food in 
Alaska, though a wild crab-apple is found in the Sitkan 
region, but small fruits grow spontaneously in greater 
profusion than in any other part of the world. There are 
wild strawberries of exceptional size ; also red and black 
currants, gooseberries, cranberries, raspberries, blueber- 



BERRIES IN ABUNDANCE- 247 

ries, bearberries, dewberries, mossberries and roseberries. 
The last are the fruit of a species of rose called Rosa 
Cinnamomea. Wild roses quite generally produce fruits, 
which in some cases are edible, but the cultivated varieties 
are "-doubled" to such an extent as to petals that the 
flowers are rarely fertilized. From many of the ber- 
ries the Russians prepare most piquant and delicious 
preserves. Already the Alaskan cranberries are being 
brought in large quantities to the San Francisco market, 
being purchased by traders from the natives, who pick 
them. 

These cranberries are bright scarlet in color, and about 
the size of a pea. They are highly prized by the Alaskan 
Indians, who depend to a considerable extent on these 
and other berries for food. The shrubs that bear blue- 
berries form a large part of the forest undergrowth in 
the low country, and the fruit is collected in great quanti- 
ties by natives, who preserve the berries, crushing and 
drying them. The salmonberry, the fruit of a spreading 
bush, is likewise much esteemed. It has the shape of a 
red raspberry, and is an inch long. The Indians crush it 
in a wooden bowl, and eat it with seal oil. This is one 
of the oldest gastronomic practices of the natives, who 
regard seal oil as the natural accompaniment of pretty 
nearly everything edible. They even eat strawberries 
with seal oil, as we would put sugar on them. 

When small fruits grow wild in such surprising abun- 
dance, it is reasonable to suppose that they might be 
cultivated successfully. This is one of the problems to 
be taken up by the experts, who may be placed in charge 



248 THE > PROBIvEM OF CULTIVATION. 

of the experiment station. They will try to find out how 
the fruits and vegetables also may best be preserved for 
winter use. The production of eggs, butter, and cheese 
will demand attention at their hands. Nothing could be 
more absurd than the present fact that the people who 
are pouring into Alaska are obliged to bring their food 
with them, because the country will not yield them a sup- 
port. They are actually obliged to fetch what they need 
to eat from San Francisco or from Puget Sound. It is 
all because the resources of the country are undeveloped. 
Dr. Dall says that within a century from the present time 
Alaska will be exporting great quantities of ship timber, 
butter, cheese, wool, mutton, and beef. Very likely her 
berries will find a wide demand. 

Turnips and radishes flourish in Southern Alaska. 
Potatoes do well, though the tubers do not attain a great 
size. Cabbages do not "head." Lettuce is successfully 
grown, though it does not ripen seed. The turnips, above 
referred to, reach a weight of five or six pounds, and 
have an excellent flavor ; the Russians preserve the tops 
in vinegar for winter use. Wild peas grow in abundance 
on the Aleutian Islands. Along the coast of the mainland 
to the northwest of Sitka, and on some of the islands off 
shore, all of the cereals except corn can be grown to per- 
fection. Kadiak, Afognak, and other islands possess a 
most fertile soil, with a milder and more equable climate 
than that of the Western States. Wild timothy grows 
luxuriantly in Southeast Alaska. There are large areas 
of excellent grazing lands, notably on the great islands 
of the Kadiak and Aleutian archipelagoes. There is no 



FERTILE SOIL OF THE ISLANDS. 2 AQ 

reason why Alaska should not rival Montana or Wyom- 
ing in the raising of stock. All along the coast millions 
of cattle and sheep might subsist on the wild grasses, 
with a much less percentage of loss from winter cold 
than in the western part of the United States, the climate 
being far milder and more equable. Indeed, the climate 
of the Sitkan and Aleutian regions is not more severe 
than that of Maryland or Virginia, and exhibits fewer 
vicissitudes. 

On the Upper Yukon the summer climate is delight- 
ful. In that region there is much arable land, with a soil 
from which farm and garden products of nearly every 
kind can be obtained. During the last spring and sum- 
mer there were eighty-five days of " growing weather " 
in that country — equal to at least 120 days in the latitude 
of Ohio and Indiana, the sun shining throughout the 
twenty-four hours. 

The most extensive efforts at gardening of all places 
in the interior have been carried on at Fort Selkirk for 
several years. Here they have raised potatoes, cabbage, 
turnips, and other vegetables. They have to irrigate the 
gardens to some extent by pumping water from the river, 
and it is necessary to blanket the plants early and also 
late in the season. For probably six weeks of mid- 
summer the latter protection is not necessary. The soil 
is very fertile, and produces better after two or three 
years' cultivation. Although much care is entailed in 
raising a garden crop on the Yukon, it pays very well, 
as potatoes are easily worth $10 a bushel at any season 



2 c CROPS WHICH PAY. 

of the year. The potatoes grow to fair size, and an acre 
will produce two hundred bushels. 

Omer Maris, who has spent a great deal of time in 
various parts of Alaska, has this to say as to the present 
condition of agriculture in the territory: 

" The biggest real practical farm that I have seen is 
about 60 by 100 feet in size, but the owner of it is pro- 
gressive, and is taking another strip fully as large ; but 
in spite of his limitations it is said his sales already this 
season amount to hundreds of dollars, and the appear- 
ance of his lettuce and onion beds would seem to justify 
the statement. 

" Up to this time there had never seemed any excuse 
for farming here. For the last few years grain and all 
kinds of produce have been very cheap on Puget Sound 
and in California. The shipping rates do not add very 
materially to the cost, and consequently food has been 
cheaper and more abundant than in the Eastern States. 
This, coupled with the fact that wages have always ruled 
high, has made farming impracticable. The only oppor- 
tunity at present seems to be in the few garden products 
that will not stand a voyage of a week or two. If the 
necessity should ever arise, however, the country might 
certainly be made to produce about everything that is 
required, with the exception of grain. 

" It is true that clearing the ground would be an almost 
desperate undertaking. To accomplish it in a season or 
two would be like mining, for something like four feet 
solid of big logs and wreckage would have to be removed, 
and, unlike a similar undertaking in the States, it would 



DIFFICULTY ABOUT CLEARING. 2 e^ 

not be practical to burn it. But the land will not always be 
incumbered in that way. It will take many years to make 
a considerable showing, but it will naturally follow the 
cutting of the timber for lumber and fuel. The obvious 
rotation will be lumber-cutting, grazing and farming in 
the order named. 

" Grass grows wherever the sun shines, and it is a kind 
of forage that cattle thrive exceedingly well on. As a 
practical instance, a dairyman took up a claim of twenty 
acres north of Juneau, where the timber had all been cut 
off. His cows make their way among the stumps and 
logs, and find plenty to eat. When the sun is let in, the 
wood decays rapidly, so in a few years the patient dairy- 
man will have a smooth, clear tract of land without any 
heart-breaking effort. Though the soil is as fertile as is 
any in the world, it has been demonstrated that it im- 
proves in productiveness with a few seasons' cultivation. 

" A few years ago a man started a cattle ranch at the 
mouth of Lemon Creek. There is a fine expanse of 
several hundred acres of tide-flats that produced grass 
of wonderful growth and quality. He brought in a herd 
of cattle that made good growth during the summer 
season. Nearly all new fields for enterprise have to go 
through an experimental stage, which generally entails 
more or less disappointment. In this case the obstacle 
encountered was in the curing of the hay. The season 
was wet at cutting time, the grass would not dry, and 
consequently spoiled. On this account the project was 
not regarded as feasible, and the cattle were disposed of 
at the approach of winter. Since then there have been 



2 c ^ THE SILO SHOULD BE USED. 

more favorable seasons, and a good deal of hay has been 
successfully cured. It has been found, however, that a 
surer way to save the forage is in a silo. Later experi- 
ments have been made in that direction, and ensilage is 
regarded as the most dependable winter food for stock. 

" At Wrangel there have been several attempts made at 
raising apples, but for climatic reasons they were unsuc- 
cessful. The trees did not live. It is possible that other 
and hardier varieties may yet succeed. The Alaskan 
coast is the greatest of berry countries. Wild straw- 
berries are as prolific and fine in quality as the best culti- 
vated varieties in the States. There are kinds of small 
fruits here that are not found anywhere else. Among 
the products of the country that grow wild in great pro- 
fusion are salmonberries and huckleberries, wild black 
currants, and high-bush cranberries. The Indians gather 
great quantities of the cranberries, and put them up — 
or down — in seal oil — a valuable suggestion for ambitious 
compilers of original bills of fare. There are also sarvis- 
berries, blueberries, thimbleberries, and another fruit 
very like a dewberry, that grows singly on a little annual 
vine like a potato plant." 

The coal resources of Alaska are lying dormant be- 
cause the time does not seem to have arrived for the 
necessity of the opening up of the mines. A number of 
small veins or seams have been found on several of the 
islands in the Southeastern Alaskan country. Those 
which, perhaps, so far have attracted the most attention 
are on Chicagoff Island, near Killisnoo, where every in- 
dication promises an extensive deposit. All the coal 






PETROLEUM DEPOSITS. 2 c;c; 

found in Alaska is bituminous, and of a very good qual- 
ity. Deposits have been found on the headwaters of the 
Chilkat River, Lituya Bay, Cook Inlet, Unga Island, and 
Port Mollar. The most extensive coal fields or deposits 
are in the Cook Inlet country, cropping out on the beaches, 
and along many of the streams. Unga Island has three 
distinct veins of coal extending a distance of two miles 
upon the sides of the mountains, each of them being 
several feet thick. Some work has been done here within 
the last few years and government vessels have experi- 
mented with the coal, but find it contains a considerable 
amount of ash and clinker. Doubtless when a srreater 
depth is reached it will improve in quality. North of 
Unga Island, about ten miles inland from Stepovak Bay, 
is a trail or portage about ten miles long leading to 
Herendeen Bay, at Port Mollar, on the Bering Sea side. 
An excellent quality of coal is found here in large 
quantities. The Alaska Commercial Company, the prin- 
cipal owners of the mine, have shipped considerable coal 
to their station at Unalaska ; and its quality, both for 
steaming and house purposes, is found to be superior to 
that found at Unga. 

Extensive coal fields exist at Cape Lisburne, on the 
Arctic side, extending for thirty or forty miles parallel 
with the coast, and for a number of miles back into the 
interior. It is of a lignite character, and the government 
vessels, Corwin and Thetis, have taken coal for steaming 
purposes from here, and have found an excess of ash and 
clinker, which seems to be the general fault with all coal 
thus far discovered in Alaska. Strong indications of 



256 



SHEEP IN THE MOUNTAINS. 



petroleum are found back from the coast a few miles, in 
this cold Arctic region, and also between Icy Bay and 
Cape Yaktaga. On the North Pacific coast, west of 
Yakutat Bay, there are thought to be extensive deposits 
of petroleum. Practically all the coal used by vessels 
navigating the Alaskan waters, and in the mills and towns 
of Alaska, is brought from the Puget Sound country and 
British Columbia. It is bought at the mines for about 
three dollars per ton, and the expense of shipping to the 
Southern Alaska ports is five or six dollars per ton. The 
expense of opening up a coal mine is so great that, until 
there is a large demand in Alaska, it is doubtful if any 
of the mines will be worked. Beds of white marble, of 
a very fine quality, are known to exist on Baranoff and 
Admiralty Islands. 

In the interior of Alaska, moose, caribou, reindeer, 
bear, and other kinds of big game abound. However, 
the miner in passing through the country is liable to see 
very little of these animals. The natives have been so 
ruthless in their attacks upon them that they have for 
the most part retired to the mountain fastness or to the 
northward beyond the gold diggings. Occasionally a cari- 
bou will be seen along the upper Yukon lakes. The big- 
horn, or mountain sheep, and mountain goats — the ibex 
— can be found by climbing the mountains for several 
thousand feet above the lakes. Their wool is long and 
fine, and when nicely cleaned and tanned makes beautiful 
rugs. The horns of the sheep are made into bowls and 
ladles by the natives. 

It is reported that it is entirely due to the bears that 



THE BROWN BEAR. 2 r~ 

the Klondike River was not long ago made to give up 
its golden treasures. These animals were very thick in 
this section of the interior at the time of the earlier dis- 
coveries, and on account of the trouble they gave the 
first prospectors the latter moved on to other diggings 
where they could work unmolested. Alaska affords 
several varieties of bears, including the polar or white 
bear, the brown bear, and the grizzly bear, known to 
science as the Ursus horribilis. In the colder months of 
the year droves of polar bears may be seen as far south 
as St. Matthew's Island, in Bering Sea, but when 
the ice begins to break up there, they strike out for the 
farthest north, as far as the Arctic Ocean. Their habits 
are of a maritime character ; they are great swimmers ; 
" they do not mind a swim of from 1 50 to 200 miles if 
they can find an occasional iceberg to rest on. They are 
ferocious, and have no fear of any enemy, so that the 
sportsman who is fond of adventures with a spice of 
danger in them can find genuine happiness in hunting 
the polar bear, which, however, it must be said, has a 
habit of killing and devouring such persons as may seek 
sport at its expense." 

The brown bear of Alaska is a huge and shaggy bear, 
varying in length from six to twelve feet, and weighing 
from 800 to 1,500 pounds, and is a dangerous adversary, 
the terror of the natives. It is an expert fisher, with a 
good appetite for salmon in its season ; and when the 
year's run of that dainty fish is over it takes to the hills, 
where small game awaits consumption. The brown bear 
has been particularly useful as a road-maker in Alaska, 



258 



BELIEF OF THE NATIVES. 



treading- the river-banks and plains in a purposeful man- 
ner, so that the traveler, by following its footsteps, will 
find the easiest routes to the hills, and to the best fording 
places. Its habitat is believed to run as far north as the 
Arctic Ocean. As to its ferocity, the natives have almost 
a monopoly of the stories. Yet there is an authentic 
report that some time ago two men killed seven brown 
bears in one day upon the mainland adjacent to the island 
of Unga, and exhibited the skins in proof of their good 
faith. This story ought to give encouragement to those 
sportsmen who like a spice of luck as well as of danger 
in their sport. 

It is hard to tell whether the grizzly bear of Alaska is 
more ferocious than the polar bear or the brown bear of 
that part of America. But some of the men who have 
traveled near Mount St. Elias say that the grizzly found 
there is unequalled for ferocity, being fiercer even than 
the Rocky Mountain variety. The Indian will never 
attack it ; he takes to flight at the sight of it. It has no 
fear of bullets. It is happy when it lays eyes on a human 
being; humanity is but provender for it. The natives 
believe that it possesses supernatural powers, and can 
hypnotize the man who goes out to kill it. Yet it is re- 
lated that upon one occasion a party of two Americans 
in the Mount St. Elias region saw a grizzly at a distance 
eating fish upon the banks of a stream, and determined 
to try conclusions with it. They got reinforcements by 
which their party was raised to the number of six. The 
six men raised their rifles and poured a volley into the 
body of the enemy, which thereupon rushed toward the 



THE ALASKA BEAVER. 250 

firing party. As the animal approached they peppered 
it with their bullets until its life was extinct. The skin- 
ning of it was the next thing; and it was one of the 
members of the party of six who said : " When the skin 
was stretched out it looked to me bigger than the biggest 
bullock hide I had ever seen ! " 

That was an adventure for sportsmen who have no 
fear of danger, but rather like it. In truth, there is no 
part of the American continent where an adventurous 
hunter can get livelier experiences in bear hunting than 
those which are to be found in Alaska. He can take his 
choice between the polar bear, the brown bear, and the 
biggest grizzly on earth. He can hover about Mount St. 
Elias, take observations upon the mainland near Unga, 
or go stalking among the ice fields which border the 
Arctic Ocean, some distance this side of the North Pole. 

Among the land animals sought after on account of 
their coats of fur the otter is the most widely distributed. 
It is found in all parts of Alaska in large numbers. 
Its hide is used for the making of an imitation seal-skin. 
Beavers, too, are to be found in many places, although not 
in such numbers as formerly. The species seems to 
have suffered a considerable thinning- out on account of 
the recent severe winters. During the early days of the 
Hudson Bay Company's history a beaver skin was valued 
at about twenty-five cents, and all over the northwest 
country was used as the equivalent of an English shilling. 
Since the thinning out of these animals the price of their 
skins has appreciated, and to-day a single beaver skin is 
worth from six to twelve dollars, The tourists look upon 



2 5 the rare silver fox. 

the flesh as a rare delicacy, and it forms the main dish at 
all social functions. The long incisors of the beaver are 
used by the natives for the manufacture of chisels, small 
adzes, and other wood and bone-making tools. 

Of foxes, Alaska can boast of an enormous supply. 
Red foxes, black or silver foxes, and blue foxes are the 
chief varieties, although long, unrestricted, inter-mixture 
has given r j se t a number of kinds of foxes which can- 
not be classified under these heads. The red fox varies 
in size and in the quality of its fur from a specimen as 
large as the high-priced Siberian fire-fox to the small, 
yellow turgid creature that is to be found in such num- 
bers on the Aleutian Islands. He lives on fish, flesh, and 
fowl. Nothing in the animal kingdom seems too poor to 
afford him food, even going so far as to eat mollusks, and 
other shell-fish. His fur is of little value, and the natives 
rarely eat his flesh, and then only when driven to it by 
the pangs of hunger. Two or three dollars is about the 
price of a good, red-fox skin. 

The black or silver fox is the most valuable of the 
vulpine family. He inhabits, for the most part, the higher 
country, and has his lair in the mountain fastness. He 
is of large size with long, soft, silky fur, varying in 
color from the silver tint to a deep jet black, the latter 
being the rarer and the most highly prized. The price 
of a fine skin sometimes goes as high as forty or fifty 
dollars. Black foxes of an inferior quality are found on 
the sea-coast, on the shores of Norton Sound, in the in- 
terior of Kotzebue Sound, along the Yukon, and on the 
Colville River. They are quite plentiful on Kadiak 



A WHITE PROWLER. 2 6l 

Island and most of the Aleutian Islands ; but they have 
been transplanted by man's agency to many of these 
points. 

Along the southwestern coast there are many islands, 
removed from the shore a few miles, uninhabited and 
never visited by natives. In a number of instances white 
men have gathered a few pairs of blue, black, and silver 
foxes, when young, from the natives, and taken them to 
these islands and turned them adrift. They arrange with 
the natives to carry food to them at stated periods, and 
they become, in a measure, tame. They increase very 
rapidly, and in three or four years become a source of 
profitable industry for the projectors of the enterprise. 
On the seal islands the propagation of the blue fox has 
been carried on for some years, only a certain number 
being killed each year. The blue fox was first discovered 
on the Aleutian Islands in 1741. It has been protected 
against intermixture with other and inferior foxes, and 
the skins are of the finest quality and command a high 
price in the market. 

A species of white fox is found along the continental 
coast of Alaska, from the mouth of the Kuskoquim River 
northward to Point Barrow., Its fur is snowy white, soft 
and long, but is not durable ; hence it does not command 
a high price in the market. The white fox is fearless, 
and will enter villages and dwellings in search of food, 
or out of mere curiosity. It will eat anything to satisfy 
hunger, and in the depth of winter the natives find it un- 
safe to leave any article of clothing, dog-harness, or boat 



2 62 THE PEER FAMILY. 

material where these thieving little animals can find 
them. 

Mink, lynxs, muskrats, and wolverines are also to be 
found in certain parts of Alaska. The skins of the latter 
are rarely exported, as a ready market is found at home. 
The natives of the Kuskokwin and coast districts prefer 
this shaggy, piebald fur to any other trimming for their 
wearing apparel. It is also prized highly among the 
Eskimo, as it serves as an excellent protection for their 
faces against the severe blasts of the north country 
when sewed in around their hoods. 

The deer of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions have 
been confounded with the reindeer of other localities. 
While they certainly belong to the same family, they are 
what is called the barren ground caribou, which differs 
from the upland caribou and domesticated reindeer in 
being smaller in body and horns. Owing to the ruthless 
manner in which they have been slaughtered their num- 
bers have been greatly diminished during recent years. 
After a long winter in the interior, when their food sup- 
ply has been exhausted, they will drift down to the coast 
in search of more favorable conditions. Here they are 
waylaid by the natives and slaughtered in great numbers 
for their hides. Deer forms one of the main food sup- 
plies of Alaska, and an effort is being made to make 
their killing unlawful for a term of years. Unless Con- 
gress authorizes this the extinction of the species will 
not be far off. They are hunted, in the rutting season, 
by a call made from a blade of grass placed between two 
Strips of wood, which produces a very clever imitation 



CATCHING HUMMING BIRDS. 263 

of the cry of the deer. This call leads them to the 
ambushed hunter; and so deceptive is it that it is not 
unusual to get a second shot should the first fail. The 
wolves play great havoc with the deer ; and it is remark- 
able that they exist in such numbers among so many 
ruthless enemies. 

Bald and gray eagles are numerous throughout South- 
east Alaska, and are also found, to some extent, in the 
interior wherever there is large timber. The natives kill 
them in large numbers and pluck the feathers, leaving 
nothing but the down. When cleansed the skins are 
sewn together, about thirty of them being required to 
make a robe, which is, at once, rich and beautiful. 

Humming birds in large numbers, having the delicate 
plumage of those found in warmer climates, flit from bush 
to bush in Southeast Alaska. Native boys tie small 
pieces of red flannel on a limb, and cover them thickly 
with pitch. The bright color attracts the tiny birds, which 
alight on the flannel. Their little feet adhere so tena- 
ciously to the pitch that they cannot extricate themselves, 
so they become an easy prey to the youngsters who trap 
them, only to worry them to death with savage cruelty. 

In all the waters of Alaska, whether in the southeastern 
country, the interior, or Arctic regions, ducks and geese 
in every variety are found in vast numbers. Alaska ap- 
pears to be especially adapted as a natural breeding 
ground. The smaller varieties of land and timber birds 
are as numerous as the water-fowl, and the graceful 
swans are found in large numbers in many parts of the 
territory. 



264 HUNDREDS OF VARIETIES OF FISH 

In Arctic Alaska the disappearance of the snow and 
ice is immediately followed by the arrival of birds from 
the south in large numbers, and, in a few weeks, the 
Eskimo revel in the variety and number of eggs found 
among the grass and tundra. Besides the wholesale 
robbing of nests for eggs the young fledglings are eaten 
by the Eskimos with a keen relish. Their stay is brief, 
however, for none, save the most hardy of the Arctic 
birds, remain to pass the long months of winter in this 
region. 

Next in importance to the seals and the gold mines, 
on which this chapter does not touch, the salmon and cod 
fisheries must take rank in any account of Alaskan re- 
sources. Upon the authority of Prof. Brau, of the United 
States Fish Commission, it may be stated that more than 
one hundred varieties of fish are found in Alaskan 
waters. 

Salmon is found in great numbers in the streams from 
the lower extremities of Southeast Alaska to the Arctic 
Ocean. The most favored varieties are those known as 
the red or silver salmon, weighing from eight to twelve 
or fifteen pounds each, and the king salmon often weigh- 
ing as high as fifty pounds. The latter variety is found 
only in a few localities in Southeast Alaska and in the 
Yukon, many miles above its mouth. It is said that 
specimens have been caught weighing over one hundred 
and twenty pounds. 

The first salmon cannery in Alaska was erected in 
1878, and at the present time there are nearly fifty; most 
of them are in operation each season. 



WHITE LABOR EMPLOYED. 2 gc 

Two-thirds of the entire salmon pack of Alaska is 
furnished by the ten canneries on the Kadiak Islands, 
which are almost entirely supplied from the Karluk River. 
This stream, which is on the west coast of Kadiak, is only 
sixteen miles long, from ioo to 600 feet wide, and less 
than six feet deep. These figures give the dimensions 
of the almost solid mass of salmon that used to ascend 
the Karluk to a mountain lake above, before the canners 
began operations with traps and gill-nets in 1884. The 
largest cannery in the world is at Karluk. In these 
canneries, in 1890, there were 1,100 employes, and over 
200,000 cases of 48 one-pound tins contained the 3,000,- 
000 salmon packed that year. A single haul of the seine 
has beached 1 7,000 fish. The company which operates 
on the Karluk, is composed of San Francisco people, 
who own the boats which carry away the product and 
thus avoid paying license to the United States Govern- 
ment. The labor is altogether imported from the States. 
Only in a few small canneries are the natives employed. 

After the salmon industry had taken hold in Alaska 
it increased so rapidly that it was soon found that the 
supply exceeded the demand. A sort of salmon trust 
was formed, some of the canneries were abandoned, and 
each cannery received its pro rata share of the proceeds 
of the canneries in operation. The total output for 1889 
was over 700,000 cans. 

Cod are found in large quantities along the Aleutian 
chain of islands, as far west as the Alexander archipelago, 
and in a general way they may be said to exist along the 
whole southern coast of Alaska. 



266 A PERILOUS OCCUPATION. 

In the vicinity of the Kadiak group of islands, and 
still further south to the Simeonoff, and at the Shumagin 
group, about the islands of Magipopf and Unga, cod are 
found in great abundance. In Bering Sea, towards the 
lower Siberian shore, they are also. Popofif Island, oppo- 
site Unga, is the headquarters for the cod-fishing fleet. 
There are large warehouses at Humboldt Harbor and 
Pirate Cove. Most of the cod are taken to California to 
be cured. 

Halibut, which is found along the northern coast and 
to some extent in Bering Sea, is a staple article of diet 
with the natives. This is also true of the herring, which 
are to be found in large quantities. 

Whales are found in all the deep waters. Upwards of 
seventy-five vessels are now engaged in the whaling busi- 
ness, and they must penetrate several miles above Ber- 
ing Strait before they encounter any of them. The 
business is hazardous, and great risks must be run. In 
the summer of 1877 nearly fifty vessels were lost, and a 
number of crews perished, preferring to remain on the 
vessels rather than risk making their way across the sea 
to land. This catastrophe led the government to estab- 
lish a rescue station at Point Barrow, the most northern 
point of Alaska, which is provisioned with supplies suffi- 
cient to last one hundred men a year. It is in charge of 
a government official whose duty it is to render aid and 
succor to shipwrecked sailors. 



CHAPTER XII. 

CLIMATIC CONDITIONS. 

The wide difference between the climate of the coast and interior — What gold- 
seekers will find in the way of weather — Mean temperature at various points 
compared — Influence of the Pacific currents — The highest and lowest points of 
the mercury — The topography of the country — Grandeur of scei.ery on mountain 
and plain — Remarkable tides of the ocean. 

GENERAL statements as to climate applicable to 
Alaska as a whole are entirely out of the question, 
on account of the difference in conditions which obtain 
on the coast and in the interior, even thirty miles back 
from the sea. The climate of southeastern Alaska can 
be compared with that of southern Norway. It is much 
milder than the climate in the same latitude on the At- 
lantic coast. This is due to the warm current of the 
Pacific that sweeps up from the southwest, having the 
same effect that is produced by the flow of the Gulf 
Stream in the Atlantic. Summer weather on the coast 
is much more liable to be wet and cloudy than in the in- 
terior. May, June, and part of July are usually all one 
could desire, but from that on to the opening of winter 
disagreeable weather is the rule and not the exception. 
At St. Michael, during this period, rain falls four days in 
seven. In October the winds shear round from the 
southwest to the north and fine weather sets in. During 
the fall wind storms are of frequent occurrence. 
268 



FOUR YEARS COMPARED. 2 7l 

The mean temperature for the four seasons and the 
year, at four different points in the lower Yukon district, 
are given in the following table. The first point is Fort 
Get There, on St. Michael ; the second, the Greek 
Mission at Cogmute, on the Yukon, 150 miles from its 
mouth ; the third, at Nulato, a Roman Catholic Mission, 
several hundred miles further up the river, and the fourth 
at Fort Yukon : 

Means. St. Michael. Cogmute. Nulato. Fort Yuko* 

Spring, 29.3 19.62 29.3 14.22 

Summer, 53.0 59.32 60.0 59-67 

Autumn, 26.3 39-°5 36.0 17.37 

Winter, 8.6 0.95 14.0 23.80 

Year, 29.3 26.48 27.8 16.92 

Chief Willis L. Moore, of the Weather Bureau, has 
furnished some interesting facts about the climatic con- 
ditions in Alaska, and touching particularly on the Klon- 
dike region. 

The general conception of Alaskan climate is largely 
due to those who go down to the sea in ships, and this 
is not strange when we consider the vast extent of shore 
line — over 26,000 miles — possessed by that Territory. 
The climates of the coast and interior are unlike in many 
respects, and the differences are intensified in this, as 
perhaps in few other countries, by exceptional physical 
conditions. The natural contrast between land and sea 
is here tremendously increased by the current of warm 
water that impinges on the coast of British Columbia, 
one branch flowing northward toward Sitka, and thence 
westward to the Kadiak and Shumagin Islands. 



2 « 2 TEMPERATE ALASKA. 

The fringe of islands that separates the mainland 
from the Pacific Ocean from Dixon Sound northward 
and also a strip of the mainland for possibly twenty miles 
back from the sea, following the sweep of the coast, as 
it curves to the northwestward to the western extremity 
of Alaska, form a distinct climate division which may be 
termed temperate Alaska. The temperature rarely falls 
to zero ; winter does not set in until December ist, and 
by the last of May the snow has disappeared except on 
the mountains. The mean winter temperature of Sitka 
is 32.5, but little less than that of Washington, D. C. 
While Sitka is fully exposed to the sea influence, places 
farther inland, but not over the coast range of mountains, 
as Killisnoo and Juneau, have also mild temperatures, 
throughout the winter months. The temperature 
changes from month to month in temperate Alaska are 
small, not exceeding 25 degrees from midwinter to mid- 
summer. The average temperature of July, the warmest 
month of summer, rarely reaches 55 degrees, and the 
highest temperature of a single day seldom reaches 75 
degrees. 

The rainfall of temperate Alaska is notorious the 
world over, not only as regards the quantity that falls, 
but also as to the manner of its falling, viz., in long and 
incessant rains and drizzles. Cloud and fog naturally 
abound, there being on an average but sixty-six clear 
days in the year. 

Alaska is a land of striking contrasts, in climate as 
well as topography. When the sun shines the atmos- 



FROM GLORY TO DESOLATION. 



273 



phere is remarkably clear , the scenic effects are magnifi- 
cent; all nature seems to be in holiday attire. But the 
scene may change very quickly ; the sky becomes over- 
cast; the winds increase in force; rain begins to fall; 
the evergreens sigh ominously, and utter desolation and 
loneliness prevail. 

North of the Aleutian Islands the coast climate be- 
comes more rigorous in winter, but in summer the differ- 
ence is much less marked. Thus, at St. Michael, a short 
distance north of the mouth of the Yukon, the mean 
summer temperature is fifty degrees, but four degrees 
cooler than Sitka. The mean summer temperature of 
Point Barrow, the most northerly point in the United 
States, is 36.8 degrees, but four-tenths of a degree less 
than the temperature of the air flowing across the sum- 
mit of Pike's Peak, Col. 

The rainfall of the coast reoion north of the Yukon 
delta is small, diminishing to less than ten inches within 
the Arctic Circle. 

The climate of the interior, including in that desig- 
nation practically all of the country except a narrow 
fringe of coastal margin and the territory before referred 
to as temperate Alaska, is one of extreme rigor in 
winter, with a brief, but relatively hot, summer, espe- 
cially when the sky is free from clouds. 

In the Klondike region, in midwinter, the sun rises 
from 9.30 to 10 a. m., and sets from 2 to 3 p. m., the total 
length of daylight being about four hours. Remember- 
ing that the sun rises but a few degrees above the hori- 
18 



274 THE WINTER GLOOM. 

zon, and that it is wholly obscured on a great many 
days, the character of the winter months may easily be 
imagined. 

We are indebted to the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey for a series of six months' observations 
on the Yukon, not far from the site of the present gold 
discoveries. The observations were made with standard 
instruments, and are wholly reliable. The mean tem- 
perature of the months October, 1889, to April, 1890, 
both inclusive, are as follows: October, 33 degrees; 
November, 8 degrees ; December, 1 1 degrees below 
zero ; January, 1 7 degrees below zero ; February, 1 5 
degrees below zero ; March, 6 degrees above zero ; 
April, 20 degrees above. The daily mean temperature 
fell and remained below the freezing point (32) from 
November 4th, 1889, to April, 21st, 1890, thus giving 168. 
days as the length of the closed season of 1889-90/ 
assuming the out-door operations are controlled by 
temperature only. 

The lowest temperatures registered during the winter 
were : 32 degrees below zero in November, 47 below in 
December, 59 below in January, 55 below in February, 
45 below in March, 26 below in April. 

The greatest continuous cold occurred in February, 
1890, when the daily mean for five consecutive days was 
47 degrees below zero. The weather moderated slightly 
about the 1st of March, but the temperature still re- 
mained below the freezing point. Generally, cloudy 
weather prevailed, there being but three consecutive 



SNOW ONE DAY IN THREE. 2 yc 

days in any month with clear weather during the whole 
winter. Snow fell on about one-third of the days in 
winter, and a less number in the early spring and late 
fall months. 

Greater cold than that here noted has been experi- 
enced in the United States for a very short time, but 
never has it continued so very cold for so long a time. 
In the interior of Alaska the winter sets in as early as 
September, when snow storms may be expected in the 
mountains and passes. Headway during one of these 
storms is impossible, and the traveler who is overtaken 
by one of them is indeed fortunate if he escapes with his 
life. Snow storms of great severity may occur in any 
month from September to May, inclusive. 

The changes of temperature from winter to summer 
are rapid, owing to the great increase in the length of 
the day. In May the sun rises at about 3 a. m. and sets 
about 9 p. m. In June it rises about 1.30 in the morning 
and sets at 10.30, giving about twenty hours of daylight 
and diffuse twilight the remainder of the time. 

The mean summer temperature of the interior doubt- 
less ranges between 60 and 70 degrees, according to 
elevation, being highest in the middle and lower Yukon 
valleys. 

As a rule, in the coast country it is clear but a few 
days in the year. Usually, however, in June and July, 
the sun pierces the heavy clouds and brightens the whole 
landscape. The rains are not so cold and chilly as else- 
where even in southern latitudes. 



276 



A HEALTHY COUNTRY. 



Notwithstanding the marked variations in the climate, 
Alaska is essentially a healthy country. The only pre- 
vailing diseases are those of a bronchial nature, and in 
most cases these troubles can be directly traced to im- 
prudent exposure. 

The snow of the interior partakes much of the char- 
acter of frost, sifting slowly down in intensely cold 
weather until it lies several inches deep, light and fluffy ; 
but at times, in warm weather, it thaws and settles into 
a hard crust, affording excellent surface for sledding. 

The great precipitation and humidity of the atmos- 
phere in Southern Alaska cause the entire coast region 
to be clothed in a mantle of perennial green. Vegeta- 
tion is dense and the forests magnificent. The soil is 
rich, though in the heavily timbered section it is shallow 
and from the most eastern point of the territory to 
Kadiak root crops are easily grown. 

The remarkable labyrinth of islands which skirt the 
coast of Alaska, the great plains of the interior, inter- 
sected by deep rivers, gigantic snow-crowned mountains, 
the active volcanoes and the mighty ice fields, with many 
other singular, beautiful, and awe-inspiring gifts of 
nature, combine to make the country of the new gold 
fields one of notable grandeur and wonder. 

Alaska is, topographically speaking, naturally divided 
into two great divisions — Southeast and Western 
Alaska. Mt. St. Elias marks the dividing line between 
Western Alaska and Southeast Alaska, at 141 degrees 
west longitude, running north from this point to the 



MT. ST. ELIAS ON THE LINE. 2 ~~ 

Arctic Ocean. For a number of years it was supposed 
that Mt. St. Elias was within American territory, but 
late surveys show most of its base to be just over the 
line in the Canadian Dominion. 

Many of the islands in the inland, or tourist route, 
have the appearance of half-submerged mountains, and 
water two hundred fathoms deep is often found, where 
the breadth of the channel can be almost spanned, by the 
length of the ship. 

Fiords are numerous, some of them winding in ser- 
pentine fashion a distance of twenty or more miles, into 
the islands or mainland. The great rivers of the in- 
terior drain immense valleys, with mountain ranges 
everywhere visible. Lakes are abundant, often sur- 
rounded by tundra or swamps, very frequently impene- 
trable, covered with brush, rank grasses, and other 
vegetation. After the interior is reached — and by this 
is meant after the coast mountains are crossed, in many 
places, only twenty or thirty miles from the coast — the 
soft earth and luxuriant vegetation of the coast country 
give place to frozen ground, and lichens and mosses on 
the mountain sides and in the valleys. But though the 
vast plains of the interior are completely within the 
grasp of the ice king for eight months of the year, with 
the advent of the long days of summer water runs, 
flowers bloom, and grasses spring into life as if by 
magic, and their growth is at once luxuriant and rapid, 
even though in many places the soil is never thawed 
beyond a few inches below the surface. In the far 



278 



BORING THROUGH ICE FOR WATER. 



north at St. Michael, and at Point Barrow, wells have 
been dug through sixty feet of solid ice, and the same 
condition has been noted on the Yukon, at Forty-Mile. 

The Aleutian Islands, stretching far out into the North 
Pacific, surrounded by rocks scarred and battered for 
ages, by the boisterous waves, are without trees, but 
they are thickly covered with a low growth of luxuriant 
vegetation. Between the mountains and the sea are 
small plateaus or prairies, with soil enriched by vege- 
table mold, and suitable for domestic gardening. Grass 
grows abundantly here, sometimes to a height of six 
feet. It is cured by the natives, to feed a few small 
Siberian cattle, and they also braid it into useful and 
often ornamental articles, such as baskets, hats, and 
mats. 

Many people familiar with Alaska deem Cook Inlet, 
which lies to the north of Kadiak, to be the pleas- 
antest portion of the country for residence. Its skies 
are always bright in summer. 

The guiding landmarks of Alaska may be said to be 
its grand mountains, volcanic peaks, and mammoth 
glaciers. Mt. St. Elias lifts !ts ermine top over 18,000 
feet above the level of the sea. In the distance it seems 
to have its base on the very shore of the ocean, although 
in reality sixty miles distant. From the south side of 
Mt. St. Elias eleven glaciers slowly make their way 
oceanward, one of them, named Agassiz glacier, being 
estimated to be twenty miles in width and fifty in length, 
covering an area of one thousand square miles. 



PEAKS AND VOLCANOES. 2 JQ 

Mt. Fairweather, one hundred and fifty miles south 
of Mt. St. Elias, is about 15,500 feet high; Mt. Crillon, 
15,000; Mt. Perouse, 14.300, and Mt. Wrangel is over 
1 9,000. 

There are thirty or more volcanoes in Alaska, six 
or eight of which are in an active state of eruption. 
Shishaldin, which is 9,000 feet high, is certainly burning, 
and its smoke may always be seen in clear weather. It 
is situated on Unimak island near the pass of the same 
name, usually followed by vessels in entering Bering Sea. 
Pavlof, about one hundred miles to the eastward, is 
another smoking mountain ; the glow from its crater 
may be seen reflected against the heavens. Mt. 
Makushin, at the eastern extremity of Unalaska island, 
is about 5,500 feet in height, and gives evidence of being 
more or less active ; while the tops of Pogrumnoi and 
Shishaldin, on Unimak island, serve as beacons at night 
or in foggy weather for vessels on their way into Bering 
Sea, as they can be seen distinctly, towering above the 
dense atmosphere. Akutan island has a smoking vol- 
cano, 4,000 feet high ; and on Atka island there are 
several volcanoes, from 3,000 to 4,000 feet in height, 
which occasionally emit smoke. 

Mt. Looan, the highest known mountain in North 
America, unless it may be Mt. Wrangel, has an ele- 
vation of 19,000 feet. Some surveyors claim that 
Wrangel is a loftier peak than Logan, but its exact height 
is unknown. Wrangel is clearly within Alaska, but Logan 
is a few miles east of the line, in Canadian territory. 



2 g Q THE LOFTIEST PEAK. 

Hot mineral springs abound all over the various 
groups of Alaska, especially those stretching from the 
Alaskan peninsula westward toward Asia. About fifteen 
miles south of Sitka hot springs are found which seem 
to contain remarkable curative properties. The Indians 
have for many generations used the health-giving 
waters, and the white man follows in his dark brother's 
track. 

The aspect of the land about Bering Strait is moun- 
tainous but not remarkably precipitous. The strait is 
only forty-eight miles wide, and the narrow passage is 
partially filled by some islands. It is not without the 
range of probability that the day will come when a rail- 
road around a large part of the circumference of the 
world will pass over this now silent strait. 

It is considered physically impossible to span Bering 
Strait with a bridge, owing to the swift current and the 
vast quantities of ice which, in winter, are continually 
flowing through, and which would speedily demolish 
such a structure. It may be possible, however, that the 
strait could be tunneled, and it has been suggested that 
it could be filled in with rock, allowing sufficient open- 
in es for the waters to run through and . for vessels to 
pass, thus forming an adamantine roadway between the 
extreme west and east, as represented by the United 
States and Siberia. 

The mountains that mark the westernmost point of 
the continent. at Cape Prince of Wales are rocky and 
barren, the ledges standing upon high pillars, with shat- 



A POSSIBLE ENGINEERING FEAT. 2 gj 

tered sides and uneven surfaces. Toward the base, 
facing- Bering Strait, the slope is gradual, extending into 
a low sandy beach reaching out into the strait a mile or 
more and then bearing to the north. Endless quantities 
of rock could be taken from these mountains of solid 
stone and dumped into the strait, until a roadway, 
similar to the great wall of China, but deeper and 
broader and stronger, would rise from the bottom of the 
shallow waters. The expense, it is true, w r ould be enor- 
mous — and no attempt is here made to discuss scientific 
difficulties in the way — but let it be remembered that all 
great engineering projects have been first ridiculed and 
denounced as chimerical, as witness the Suez Canal, 
Nicaragua Canal, the Panama Canal, and other great 
triumphs of engineering skill. The practicability of the 
Panama Canal, in which the French people invested tens 
of millions of dollars, though yet uncompleted, has been 
fully demonstrated. To carry so gigantic an enterprise 
to a successful completion unlimited capital and labor 
would be required. In the matter of labor, if white men 
could not be found, Eskimos could be utilized. 

The tides of the Pacific coast of Alaska differ from 
those we are familiar with on the Atlantic seaboard. 
Lieutenant Ray, in reporting to the Hydrographic Office, 
speaks of them as "perplexing tidal irregularities." 
During the summer months of May, June, and July there 
occurs but one high and one low water during each 
twenty-four hours, high water at the full change of the 
moon occurring about midnight and varying but slightly 



2^2 SOME TIDAL NOTES. 

from that hour during the entire six months. The 
springs range from eight to ten feet, the neaps from four 
to five feet. The tides are almost stationary for two 
hours on either side of high and low water, unless 
affected by strong winds outside. 

During August, September, and October, there are two 
high and low waters during twenty-four hours, a superior 
and an inferior tide. During the winter almost a re- 
versal of these rules appears to take place. In Novem- 
ber, December, and January the twelve-hour tides again 
occur, but the high water appears at noon, instead of 
midnight. In February, March, and April there are two 
tides, the superior high water occurring in the afternoon. 
Thus it may be said that in the summer the tides are low 
during the day, the highest occurring during the night, 
and in winter the opposite is the case. The tides during 
those months when two occur every day are far more 
irregular than at the time when there is but one. Another 
anomaly is that the greatest range frequently occurs at 
the first and last quarters, instead of at the full and 
change of the moon. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

CIVILIZED ALASKA. 

The Government, Trade, and Cities of the Oldest Parts of the Northern 
Territory — Settlements of the Coast and how they are Supported — 
The Great Salmon Canneries. The Strong Hand of Uncle Sam — The 
Greek Church and its Work among the Natives — The Capital and 
Metropolis of the Territory — What the Intrepid Missionaries Have 
Done for Alaska. 

SINCE the sending of Russian missionaries to Alaska 
more than a century ago, the march of civilization 
in that part of the frozen North has been steady, 
though somewhat slow. Perhaps no other element has 
contributed so much to the progress as those unselfish, 
determined missionaries and the ones who succeeded 
them. If they endured all manner of privations and 
hardships in their work, they nevertheless had the satis- 
faction which comes to all in viewing the successful issue 
of their labors. What has been accomplished for civili- 
zation is now to be seen on every side in the way of 
thriving towns and prosperous industries, which speak 
volumes for the glorious future of a country which, with 
all the evils of its climate and remote situation, is sin- 
gularly blessed in many ways. 

The hand of civilization has not as yet extended far 
from the coast in Alaska, but it is certain that with the 
new discoveries of gold, and the tide of population flow- 
ing into the interior, the pleasant conditions existing in 

283 



2«4 SITKA. 

the towns of the southeast, the comforts and many of 
the luxuries, the schools and industries, the courts and 
other safeguards, will soon follow. 

Sitka, while not the largest town in Alaska, that posi- 
tion being held by Juneau, is the capital of the Territory, 
and in addition to its being the seat of government terri- 
tory, has other claims to the distinction of being regarded 
as the centre of its civilization. It is situated on Baranof 
Island, the best known of all the islands in the Archi- 
pelago. It is 1 20 miles long and 30 miles wide. Here 
Alexander Baranof, a Russian merchant, established a 
trading post as long ago as 1 799. The present town is 
situated about three miles south of the site of that post. 
A fort was early established at Sitka and continued until 
the transfer of the territory to the United States. After 
the withdrawal of the Russian troops the natives de- 
stroyed much of the property and sacked the town, but 
order being restored again the town has grown steadily 
since then, though its population even now numbers 
something less than 3000. 

Sitka is the official residence of the Governor of the 
territory, the United States District Judge, and other 
officers. It is also the home port of men-of-war and 
revenue vessels patrolling the surrounding waters. The 
town is built on level land at the mouth of the Indian 
River at the foot of Mt. Verstovi. Lincoln, which is the 
main street, extends from the government wharf to the 
old Russian sawmill, one of the ancient landmarks of the 
island, A large parade-ground fronts the harbor. A 
granite monument in the centre is the United States 



BARANOF MANSION. 28^ 

Astronomical Station. Mail steamers remain at Sitka 
twenty-four hours, and others for a shorter time. The 
chief objects of interest are the "Castle," once occupied 
by the manager of the Russian Fur Company, the Greek 
Cathedral Church, the Indian village, the block house 
and Russian cemetery, and the museum and industrial 
school. 

The barracks and custom-house are relics of the Rus- 
sian dominion, and in the former is the territorial jail and 
offices of the Government. A long flight of steps leads 
to the "Castle," where the whites protected themselves 
from the natives in 1867. On this site Baranof first built 
his home. Later the Russian Governor erected a man- 
sion there, which was destroyed by an earthquake in 1847, 
and rebuilt.' It was a massive and in some respects a 
unique structure. Built of cedar logs, it was joined by 
copper boilts, and riveted to the rock foundation. It 
had a glass cupola, which was formerly the harbor light- 
house. The building was richly furnished and decorated, 
but was looted during 1867 after the departure of the 
Russian troops. In 1893 it was restored, but soon after 
wrecked by a fire. 

Baranof built a small chapel at Sitka in 1816, but when 
Ivan Veniaminoff was made Bishop of Russian America 
he erected a cathedral in 1844. It occupies a quadrangle 
on Lincoln Street. The chime of six bells was sent from 
Moscow. The interior is richly decorated. The treas- 
ury contains rich and beautiful vestments. The chapel 
of St. Mary, nearby, is used for services in winter. The 
altar picture there of the Madonna and Child, shadowed 



286 



BLARNEY STONE. 



with heavy silver draperies, is much admired, as are some 
similar works elsewhere in the cathedral and chapel. So 
it will be seen that even in this far away land art is not 
forgotten. The Czar of Russia, as the head of the 
Greek Church, maintains the churches and chapels of 
Alaska, numbering some seventy. He transferred the 
Bishop's see from Sitka to San Francisco at one time, 
but removed it to Unalaska, and then back to Sitka. 
Thus some of the old glory of St. Michael's Cathedral 
has been restored. The Bishop occupies a long, green- 
roofed, comfortable mansion. 

The Lutheran Church, built by Governor Etholin in 
1840 for the Swedes and Finns employed in the foun- 
dries and shipyards, was the garrison church after the 
transfer, but was later abandoned and torn down. 

One of the largest buildings in Sitka is the big log 
structure, now occupied by a general trading store, was 
formerly the chief office of the Russian-American Fur 
Company. There is an eminence in the northern part 
of the town, where a Russian race-track was formerly 
located, which has been reserved for the erection of an 
executive mansion either by the National Government 
or the Commonwealth when Alaska is admitted to the 
Union. 

Sitka had at one time a large ice trade, the product 
being shipped down the coast to the cities of the Pacific 
seaboard, but the cheap method of making ice by machine 
has ruined this industry. 

The "Blarney stone," a square block on the beach, is 
supposed to endow those who kiss it with a magic tongue. 








Chilkoot Coat. 



MRS. TOM. 



289 



The Sitka Mission and Industrial School was founded by 
the Presbyterians in 1878, and is a prosperous and use- 
ful institution. The native village fronting on the harbor 
north of the Sitka wharf has been transformed since 
1880. Prior to that time the Indians lived in great com- 
munal dwellings surrounded by filth, but Captain Glass 
had the village cleaned at that time and the houses num- 
bered for record and sanitary inspection. The enforce- 
ment of rigid rules and the stimulation of the Indian 
pride have wrought much change for the better. Mrs. 
Tom, who is sometimes called the queen, is by no means 
of princely lineage, but comes of the commonest Yakutat 
stock. She has shown a remarkable ability as a money- 
maker. She is one of the shrewdest traders in the ter- 
ritory, and owns lands and schooners worth a very nice 
fortune. The Sitkan Indians number about 1000. They 
are descended from wanderers and renegades of many 
tribes, and are regarded with contempt by almost all the 
other Indians of Alaska. 

The fur trade has long been Sitka's chief industry, but 
the gold discoveries in the last thirty years have been 
very demoralizing to it. In 187 1 Edward Doyle found 
float gold on the shores of Silver Bay near Sitka. He 
uncovered a quartz stringer on Round Mountain and 
another on Indian River. The Haley and Rogers lode 
on Salmon Creek was first worked by the garrison offi- 
cers. The Stewart mill, on a neighboring claim, was 
built in 1877, and the Bald Mountain claims were soon 
after discovered. Governor Swineford's energy revived 
the languishing mining interest in 1885, and since then 



290 



GOVERNMENT OF ALASKA. 



a number of more or less valuable claims have been 
opened, and many of the citizens of Sitka are directly or 
indirectly interested in mining enterprises. 

The government of Alaska as carried on at Sitka is 
the usual one applied to all the Territories of the United 
States, with some modifications necessary to adopt it to 
the peculiar conditions. The Governor and Secretary of 
the Territory are appointed by the President, and live 
and carry on their duties at Sitka. By far the most 
onerous duties, however, fall to the share of the court 
officers. At the head of the judicial branch is the United 
States Judge, appointed by the President. There are 
also the United States Marshal and the Commissioners, 
the former having deputies in various other towns. The 
active force at hand to carry on the work of government 
is at present small. The police force consists of the 
eight deputy marshals. There are in all eight Commis- 
sioners and eight deputies. In case of serious trouble 
the marshal could summon a posse of citizens to enforce 
order. The laws of the United States are rigidly en- 
forced in Southeastern Alaska, but, of course, with so 
small a force at his disposal the marshal must largely 
depend on the citizens themselves to enforce order in 
the new gold-fields of the interior. There is also a land 
office at Sitka, and it is probable that two others will 
shortly be established at Circle City and Dawson. 

Captain Ray, of the United States Army, and several 
officers of his command who are familiar with Alaska, 
are at present in the Territory, with a view to making a 
report on the necessities of the case there in the matter 



JUNEAU. 291 

of preserving the peace. It is not unlikely that one or 
more companies of the regular army will be ordered 
north in the spring. 

The metropolis and gateway of our big northwest ter- 
ritory is Juneau, a town about twenty years old. In spite 
of the immensity of the couutry it is hard to find room 
enough on the coast to build a town on, and conse- 
quently Juneau is much crowded for space. The 
streets are hardly half the usual width, and the houses 
reach up the foot of the mountain as high as it is 
safe to build them on account of the risk from snow- 
slides. 

As there is plenty of timber everywhere, all the houses, 
including the Federal building, are of wood. Even the 
Indians live in fairly good frame houses. The law, as 
far as it extends, is administered by the United States 
authorities. A Federal commissioner hears all cases that 
come up, disposing of the smaller ones and holding the 
more serious offenders to the United States Court. Most 
of the cases are for violation of the liquor regulations. 
For the most part the liquor laws are a dead letter. 
Dozens of saloons are run openly without paying any 
kind of license. An occasional arrest is made, but it 
does not serve as a check on the business, Public 
opinion is against the enforcement of the law. The only 
offence of this nature that is regarded seriously is the 
selling of liquor to the Indians. Public opinon condemns 
this, and there are occasional convictions for it. 

The Indians give more or less trouble in their tribal 
relations. They seem to be unable to understand that 



292 



KYACKS. 



they cannot make and enforce their own savage laws as 
they once did. 

A slight hill, or ridge, divides the business portion of 
Juneau from the Indian town. Standing on this ridge at 
any time in the day one may enjoy an animated picture 
on the beach below. The one important item in life to 
these Indians is their fishing. Their houses line the beach 
at a safe distance above high tide, and all the interme- 
diate space is filled with the appurtenances of their craft. 
Their long boats, or kyacks, turned up at both ends, and 
which cut the water like a knife, are drawn up out of 
reach of the surf, and are generally covered over with 
skins or cloths to protect them from the weather. And 
of very good workmanship are these boats. Some of 
these are six feet across in the widest place, and may be 
twenty or thirty feet long, hewn from a solid piece of 
timber. From the care and accuracy bestowed upon 
them it looks as though it might easily take a good work- 
man a year to make such a craft. These boats are very 
speedy, and the Indians fearlessly undertake any sort of 
a sea voyage in them. Sometimes the Alaskan Indians 
go all the way down to Puget Sound for the sake of a 
month's work during the hop-picking season and for the 
incident excitement. Their chief dependence is fishing. 

Juneau is an ideal mining camp. Every building in 
the town, and every inhabitant, bears the aspect of activity 
and prosperity peculiar to live mining camps. 

With but few exceptions, the inhabitants have not 
found time to clear their lots of the stumps or gnarled 
roots that litter as well as make a rustic ornament for 



METROPOLIS OF ALASKA. 



293 



every door-yard. But there are a number of handsome 
residences and neat business houses ; and a system of 
water works that draws its supply from the purest of 
mountain streams, and an electric light plant which for 
four months of the year gives way to the brilliant light of 
heaven's sun, taking its turn again for four months in the 
winter, excepting only a few hours at midday. 

All roads lead to Rome, it is said, and all routes in 
Alaska lead to Juneau. The Yukon miner comes here 
to outfit for his long and hazardous trip into the interior ; 
all travellers who come to Alaska, whether for business 
or pleasure, and even the Uuited States Court, if in 
session at Sitka, the capital, comes here for nineteen- 
twentieths of its jurors, without whom it could not trans- 
act business. Juneau is rightly called the metropolis. 
Whether she will retain this prestige remains to be seen. 
If so, one of two things must occur. She must plane 
down the sides of her mountains or erect sky-scraping 
buildings with elevators to accommodate her populace, 
for nearly every foot of available ground is already 
occupied. 

The population of Juneau numbers about three thou- 
sand souls ; and the enterprise of the people and vol- 
ume of business are shown by the support given to the 
three newspapers here published : The Mining Record, 
the oldest paper published here, is devoted especially to 
the mining interests of the country ; the Searchlight, a 
metropolitan-appearing journal, and the News. 

Juneau was founded in the winter of 1880-81, six 
months after the discovery of gold (August 15, 1880), 



294 



FORT WRANGEL. 



by Joseph Juneau and Richard Harris. It went under 
the name of Harrisburg at first, and afterward was 
called Rockwell, but the miners, at a meeting about 
a year after its foundation, decided to rechristen it in 
honor of the discoverer of gold. 

Fort Wrangel is an important station, on an island by 
that name, off the mouth of the Stikine river. It was the 
second settlement in Alaska, and commands a broad, 
mountain-walled harbor that lies eighty miles in from the 
ocean. This gives it a warmer and a drier climate than 
places on the outer coast. The thermometer often 
reaches 90 in the summer, and extreme cold is almost 
unknown. Admiral Wrangel founded the first settle- 
ment on the island. United States troops occupied a 
fort there for the ten years following 1867, but they were 
then withdrawn. With the decrease in the mining in- 
terest on the Stikine river, Fort Wrangel's trade was 
almost lost, and the little village is now supported 
almost entirely by the lumber trade. It is destined to 
see much of a revival now, however, for it is on one 
of the main routes to the Klondike country, and all the 
boats stop there. 

The Metlakatlan Indians, who emigrated to Alaska 
from British Columbia, have an interesting settlement 
on the Annette islands in the Alexander archipelago, and 
a few white people live among them and direct their 
labors, which are devoted largely to canning salmon. 
Some 8000 cases of salmon are shipped away annually. 
These people publish a newspaper. They have a photo- 
graph gallery, jewelry making stores, schools, and vari- 



KILLISNOO. 



295 



ous other establishments. There are many salmon-can- 
ning settlements along the coast, but the largest estab- 
lishment is at Loring, at the entrance of Naha bay. The 
canning industry represents an investment of several 
million dollars, and the output of all Alaska amounts at 
present to over half a million cases. 

Killisnoo, on Kenanow Island, is the site of large oil 
and guano works. There is a post-office, a government 
school, and a Russian chapel. 

Fort Kenai is located on Cook's inlet, which extends 
160 miles inland between the Chignik range and the 
mountainous Kenai peninsula. This inlet and the settle- 
ments along its shores have long figured prominently in 
the talk of the gold-fields of the north. Sheltered on 
all sides, its shores enjoy a mild climate. The warm, 
dry summers won for it the name of "Summer Land" 
from the Russians. Fort Kenai was garrisoned by the 
United States troops for some years, but it is only a 
trading-post now. There are three canneries on the 
inlet. Gold was found there as early as 1855, and pros- 
pectors are now camped in large numbers along the 
shores. 

St. Paul, with a population of 500, is on the northeast 
shore of Kadiak island, and was the first headquarters 
of the Shelikoff and Baranof fur trade. Furs to the 
value of $300,000 are shipped yearly. 

On the island of Unalaska is the town of Iliuhuk, 
"the curving beach," better known as Unalaska, which 
is a port of entry for all ships passing in or out of Bering 
Sea. It is the metropolis of the west, though its popula- 



2o6 DR « SHELDON JACKSON. 

tion is less than 500, A United States commissioner 
and deputy collector of revenue reside there. The 
Greek Church is the second in size in Alaska. Beside 
the Russian parish school there is a government day 
school and a Methodist mission. It is the headquarters 
for the Alaska Commercial Company. The ships of the 
Pacific-Arctic whaling fleet call there for supplies, and 
during the modus Vivendi in the early nineties it was the 
headquarters of the American and British fleets. There 
is direct communication with Sitka, 1250 miles distant, 
by monthly mail steamers, and frequent communication 
with San Francisco, 2100 miles away. 

To Dr. Sheldon Jackson, who first visited Alaska in 
1884, is due, in a large measure, the present excellent 
condition of the Alaska school system. While the mis- 
sionaries had been working faithfully to ameliorate the 
condition of the natives since late in the last century, 
their progress had been slow. Through Dr. Jackson's 
efforts, Mrs. A. R. McFarland, an energetic, capable 
woman, took up the work at Fort Wrangel, where a 
native teacher had long sought unaided to elevate the 
moral status of his people. Mrs. McFarland became 
nurse, doctor, undertaker, preacher, and teacher. No 
marriage ceremony then existed among the natives, and 
polygamy, slavery, and devil dances were common. Her 
untiring efforts did much to eradicate these evils and 
further substantial progress. She left Fort Wrangel a 
few years later, and is now engaged in the same work 
at the lower portion of Prince of Wales Island, where 
she is loved and respected by the natives. 



REINDEER. 2Q7 

In 1885 Congress made an appropriation for the Alaska 
public school system, and Dr. Jackson was appointed 
General Agent of Education for the Territory. In this 
capacity he has established schools in the most advan- 
tageous points throughout the whole Territory, and the 
apportionment of the public moneys among the already 
established church denominations has made the mission- 
ary work of Alaska a mighty bulwark of religious strength 
for the welfare of the natives. Dr. Jackson is truly a 
pioneer Christian worker. After many years of arduous 
duty in a number of the Western Territories he sought a 
new field in the great Alaskan Territory. He was con- 
fronted by the totally unorganized state of the country, 
devoid of laws or government ; but his indomitable spirit 
was not held down by difficulties — he gained the ear of 
the powers at Washington — and his earnest, fervent faith 
is daily proved by his works. To Dr. Jackson also be- 
longs the credit of importing reindeer from Siberia to 
Arctic Alaska. While in search of new fields for mis- 
sionary and school work he discovered that the Eskimos 
were starving. He at once interested Government in 
the cause, and to-day the industry of domesticating rein- 
deer in that section is an assured fact. 

In this connection it is proper to add that this humane 
proposition was at first met with severe criticism and 
opposition on the ground that it was impracticable and a 
useless expenditure of public money. And were it not 
that Mr. Harris, United States Commissioner of Educa- 
tion, gave it his hearty support and encouragement, the 
most beneficent act ever extended to a worthy and 



298 



INDIAN SCHOOLS. 



starving people would not have become as it has, an 
assured success. And to this broad-minded and worthy 
official, who has stood faithfully by the cause of education 
in Alaska, is also largely due the credit of its advance- 
ment in this far-off Territory. 

The first school in Alaska was organized at Kadiak 
by Gregory Shelikoff in 1784. And the first church 
building was also there erected ; it still exists, but the 
school has been extinct for a quarter of a century. 

The Indian industrial training schools have proved 
excellent institutions. Among these three deserve espe- 
cial mention. They are located at Sitka, Koserefski, on 
the Yukon, and at New Metlakahtla. The founder and 
director of the latter is Mr. William Duncan, to whose 
work reference is made elsewhere in this volume. The 
school at Sitka is partially aided by this government, and 
is under the management of the Presbyterian Board of 
Home Missions, and that of Koserefski is under Roman 
Catholic supervision. 

In these schools the boys are taught painting, carpentry, 
shoemaking, and other trades. The girls are instructed 
in cooking, baking, sewing, and all branches of plain house- 
keeping, the purpose, in short, of these schools, being to 
civilize and christianize the native children. 

The number of private schools, supported by various 
religious denominations, is nineteen, while the number 
supported by the government is sixteen. The Russian 
church, established so long ago, has many communicants, 
but many of them retain their belief in witchcraft, polyg- 
amy, and kindred barbarous practices. 



MISSIONS. 



299 



The indefatigable efforts of teachers and missionaries, 
their absolute devotion to the work of civilization and 
Christianizing the natives of Alaska has been of incal- 
culable benefit to this hitherto neglected people. There 
has been mental, moral, and physical growth, whose 
influence is far-reaching, and which should command 
the hearty sympathy and support of all humanitarians, 
irrespective of class or creed. 

The Greek Church, so early in the field, had a few 
priests who did good work for the natives. 

Father Tosi, of the Roman Catholic faith, has labored 
long years with devotion on the Yukon. Father Althoff, 
after sixteen years of Alaskan labor, has been appointed 
to work in Vancouver, British Columbia. He opened 
the mission work in Juneau, founded there the school 
and hospital of St. Ann's and the Roman Catholic 
Church. Through many discouragements and uncer- 
tainties, Father Althoff and the good. sisters labored at 
Juneau, receiving nothing for their services save their 
their frugal board and modest apparel. 

There are three principal Episcopal missions — St. 
James, Fort Yukon, and Circle City — that administer to 
about 2000 natives, 1300 of whom are baptismal mem- 
bers of the church, and there are several other stations 
besides these. Much painstaking work has been done 
in offering them the Scripture in a way that they can 
understand. Many of the Indians can read in their own 
language, which, as printed, consists of a literature of 
translations of the Bible, Prayer-book, and Hymn-book. 
These Indians seem particularly susceptible to religious 



30o 



MAGNIFICENT DISTANCES. 



teaching. A little education seems to show more quickly 
when applied to an Indian than it does on any other race. 
It shows on the surface. It smooths out the wrinkles on 
his forehead, as if the tangled threads of life had been 
set aright. He looks much better, and no doubt the 
effect is far reaching - . 

A thousand miles is as nothing in the jurisdiction of 
Bishop Rowe, of the Episcopal Church. It is more than 
that far from Anvik to Circle City, and yet they are 
spoken of as neighbors. The Rev. J. L. Prevost has 
charge spiritually of the few hundred miles of the river, 
which includes the mining towns and the post at the 
mouth of Tanana river, which latter place is called Fort 
Adams although the mission is designated St. James. 
Mr. Prevost has made that station his residence for two 
or three years. They have a boarding-school for natives 
there, and among other enlightening influences he has 
started a small newspaper, which is now issued from 
the press twice a year, and it is a very interesting little 
paper, for it contains the news of the country — some- 
thing of all that is going on — from Herschel Island to 
the mines, and from Bering Sea to Mackenzie River. 
Mr. Prevost will have a small steamboat at his disposal 
next year, and will be enabled to move thoroughly over 
his field. The work of religious teaching at Fort Yukon 
for the most part has been deputed to a native cate- 
chist. 

Other Protestant denominations have missions on the 
Yukon and along the coast of Alaska, notably the Pres- 
byterians and the Methodists. 



PROTESTANT MISSIONARIES. 



30I 



The work of the Protestant missionaries will be facili- 
tated by the introduction of the little Siberian reindeer, 
provided the experiment proves a success, which now 
seems likely, although it will be rather slow in practical 
benefits. The Eskimos will need to be patiently taught 
new traits. Their natural inclination is to kill and eat. 
This likewise is the ruling passion of their dogs, and both 
must be trained and restrained. 

The majority of the Protestant missionaries are mar- 
ried, and, of course, have their families with them. 
There are those, especially of the Church of England 
missions, who have almost grown old in this particular 
field. Bishop Bompass, of the Selkirk diocese, has been 
in the country since the establishment of the mission, 
thirty years ago. It is said he can take a slab of dried 
salmon in each pocket, and for a few days out-travel an 
Indian courier. And the worthy bishop, while extending 
the sway of the Gospel, has taken some thought at odd 
times of worldly matters. His wealth is estimated at 
$250,000. The Jesuits enter the field, of course, to 
stay. 

Supported distinctively by the American Province of 
the Moravian Church, the mission in Alaska dates from 
the year 1884, when in response to the invitation of Dr. 
Sheldon Jackson, A. Hartmann and William H. Wien- 
land were sent on a tour of exploration to the Nushagak 
and Kuskoquim Rivers in northwestern Alaska. The first 
permanent missionaries, William H. Weinland and John 
H. Kilbuck and their wives, together with Hans Tor- 
gersen, who was to go out temporarily to aid in erecting 



3<D2 TORGERSEN DROWNEDi 

the needful houses, landed at the mouth of the Kusko- 
quim River, on June 19, 1885. On August rc> Torgersen 
was drowned whilst sailing up the river with supplies for 
Bethel, as they named the station they founded. The 
first converts were received into Church fellowship on 
September 10, 1888. A second station was founded at 
Carmel, on the Nushagak, by Frank E. Wolff, in 1887, 
who was accompanied by his wife and Mary Huber. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

NOTES FROM ALASKAN HISTORY. 

Vitus Bering, an emissary of Peter the Great — Discovery of Mount St. Elias — Four- 
teen lost sailors — Alexander Baranof and the inception of the Russian American 
Company — Spanish attempts to possess Alaska — Russian oppression and cruelty 
— An idyll of Baranof Castle — Purchase by the United States — A blood-stained 
flag — The naming of the territory — Military occupation and civil government — 
Governors past and present — Proposed legislation. 

THE history of our northwest possessions begins 
with the voyages of discovery by Vitus Bering, an 
officer in the Russian navy. In 1728, bearing a commis- 
sion from Peter the Great, he found the strait, between 
Siberia and America, which bears his name. In 1741, at 
the behest of the Empress Anne, he started to find Vasco 
de Gama's fabled land. After encountering and weather- 
ing a severe storm he reached Kayak Island on St. Elias 
Day, July 17th, 1741, saw and named the great mountain 
that to-day is one of the monuments which set the line 
between the American and British possessions. A few 
days later this intrepid old sea-dog was shipwrecked on 
the Comandorski Islands and lost his life. His scurvy- 
stricken crew put back into a Siberian port, carrying 
with them a few skins of seals whose flesh had kept them 
from starvation. Immediately Russian traders sent out 
expeditions to get more of these rich furs. Tschirikow 
was in command of one of these parties, and arriving on 
the coast near the present site of Sitka, sent a boat's 

303 



oq, RUSSIAN AMERICAN FUR CO. 

crew to make a survey of the bay. They failed to come 
back, and a second crew was dispatched to make search. 
After waiting for three weeks Tschirikow sailed for 
home short of fourteen men and a number of boats. This 
experience put a damper on Alaskan exploration, and 
there was but little activity in this direction until 1783, 
when Gregory Shelikoff, a rich Siberian merchant, estab- 
lished a post on Kadiak Island. He took into partner- 
ship with him Alexander Baranof, a Russian merchant, 
who had been ruined by the loss of his caravans. They 
seem to have been a very energetic firm, and did much 
to establish their business on a firm basis. In May, 1 799, 
Baranof built a stockaded post on the island which bears 
his name, three miles north of the present city of Sitka. 
That same year Emperor Paul VIII granted a charter to 
the Russian American Fur Company. This corporation 
was the result of a consolidation of nine rival Siberian 
trading concerns, and had a number of the imperial 
family as stockholders. Up to this time the Romanoffs 
had given but little attention to their American domains. 
The new company was given absolute control of the 
country for a period of twenty years, and Baranof was 
made the resident manager. 

In the meantime the news of Tschirikow's discoveries 
had reached Spain and had aroused the cupidity and 
interest of the reio-nino- monarch. 

Spain took alarm at the apparently important nature 
of the Russian explorations. In order to neutralize 
what she evidently considered an encroachment on her 






% 



1 
ft 



PEREZ EXPEDITION. * Q j 

claimed rights to all territory not chartered, Spain, 
through her cabinet, ordered an exploring expedition to 
proceed along the coast to the northward of California. 

This expedition, which was under Perez, added some- 
what to the then slight knowledge regarding- the Alas- 
kan peninsula. Perez sighted and mapped two capes, 
to which he gave the names of Santa Margarita and 
Santa Magdalena. The Perez expedition did not land 
at Santa Margarita, and the observations of the Alaskan 
territory recorded by the leader of the expedition were 
based upon his experience at Santa Magdalena. 

Unquestionably the mapping of the coast by Perez 
was crude and faulty, and it would scarcely call forth 
comment but for the fact that some of the members of 
his expedition rescued from the hands of the natives an 
old bayonet and other implements of a civilization of 
which the Alaskans were not supposed to have cogni- 
zance. The conjecture of the pilot of the expedition 
that these relics were but grewsome mementos of the 
lost sailors of the Tschirikow expedition was doubtless 
well founded. The suggestion of cannibalism, which 
here intrudes itself has no other basis than conjecture. 

Another Spanish expedition was sent out in 1775, and 
a landing made. The whole territory was claimed for 
the Spanish crown, but the Castilian government failed 
to follow it up very actively. In 1787 the Viceroy of 
Mexico was instructed to dispatch an expedition with a 
view to exploring the northwestern coast for the pur- 
pose of finding if possible desirable locations for settle- 



;o8 



MEXICAN EXPEDITION. 



ment. An expedition was sent from Mexico and 
anchored at Pueilo des Flores, where they took posses- 
sion and remained for a time in friendly intercourse with 
the natives. From this point they proceeded to Kaclich, 
where the chief of the colony impressed upon the Span- 
ish commander the fact that the Czar had firmly estab- 
lished his title to this domain as far south as 5 2° of 
latitude. At this time the Russians in Alaska were 
represented by six settlements colonized by about 400 
men, who were in control of six vessels. 

Shortly thereafter the Russian empress ordered Jacobi 
to report on the best means of finally establishing Rus- 
sian dominion over the islands of the Eastern ocean and 
the northwest coast of America, and the best system of 
government for the same. In an exhaustive report 
Jacobi, among other things, recommended the dispatch of 
a fleet from the Baltic to protect navigation in the Pacific. 

Though constant quarrels between rival trading com- 
panies constituted a drawback to the colonization of the 
new region, it had thus far been attended by a fair 
amount of success. 

In the year 1783 the Siberian merchants increased 
their facilities for operating on a larger scale in the new 
country. They sent to Alaska a company of 192 men, 
which was the largest force that had been sent from the 
Siberian coast at any one time. Another party sent to 
the new colony at this time encountered forces of hostile 
natives, and after severe fighting a number of them were 
killed. These were the conditions which led up to the 



OPPRESSION AND CRUELTY. 



309 



chartering of the Russian American Fur Company as 
above set forth. 

The history of this company's rule is one of oppression 
and cruelty. The natives were pressed into the service 
of the company, and forced oftentimes to work without 
remuneration, except as the scanty food and clothing 
furnished them might be looked upon as such. The 
resident manaeers and their assistants led lives marked 
by debauchery and crime. New Archangel, named after 
Russia's great Arctic port, and which at a later date was 
given the name of Sitka, was the principal settlement, 
but the company had about forty stations. They ex- 
ported annually 25,000 skins of the seal, sea-otter, 
beaver, etc., besides about 20,000 sea-horse teeth. 

The company's charter was renewed in 18 19 and again 
in 1839. In 1863 the Russian American Fur Company 
closed its career, the last charter having run its course. 
Neither party to the agreement seemed anxious for a 
continuance. 

It was about this time that negotiations looking toward 
a purchase by the United States began. So great was 
the popular opposition to the scheme that it would cer- 
tainly never have been consummated had it not been for 
the steadfastness of Secretary of State Seward. In view 
of the steady growth of the territory under United States 
government, and particularly in the light of recent de- 
velopments, some of his utterances at the time seem 
almost prophetic. To accomplish the transfer was his 
heart's desire. He was ably seconded in his aims by 



•2 IO PRICE AGREED ON. 

Charles Sumner, whose speech in the Senate on " the 
cession of Russian America" was one of the finest 
oratorical efforts of his career. 

Conjecture is never idle, and various reasons have 
been assigned why Russia disposed of her vast posses- 
sions on this continent. 

It has been said that the United States commenced 
the negotiation to remunerate Russia, under the guise of 
purchase, for her friendly attitude toward us during the 
civil war. Many also believe that Russia sought to dis- 
pose of this territory to the United States that England 
might not, in some way, absorb it, and so strengthen her 
already powerful hold on this continent. The most 
reasonable solution of the question, however, is, that she 
wished to be relieved of the care and protection which 
her subjects so constantly required of her in maintaining 
the semblance of a government on this continent, so 
far removed from her own shores. This view is also , 
strengthened by the fact that Russia at no time from the 
earliest acquisition of the territory manifested any special 
interest in its development, and that the motives that 
actuated her in holding her possessions were largely in- 
fluenced by the Russian American Fur Company. 

In the earlier negotiations during the presidency of 
Franklin Pierce, $5,000,000 was informally suggested to 
the Russia government as a fair price for the territory. 
The Romanoffs seemed to think that this sum doubled 
would be more equitable. Seven million two hundred 
thousand dollars was the price finally agreed upon. 



TREATY. -j j 

The treaty between Russia and the United States 
was signed March 30th, 1867, and finally ratified by the 
Senate on June 20th of the same year. The ceremony 
of the transfer was very simple. Had one been in Sitka 
a certain bright October afternoon in 1867 ne would 
have seen beautiful Sitka Bay gay with the fluttering 
Stars and Stripes on three United States warships, 
the " Ossipee," the " Jamestown," and the " Resaca," 
while from every staff and roof of the village waved the 
emblem of Russia's power. In front of the old castle 
on its lofty natural elevation were drawn the troops of 
both countries, silently awaiting the first salute from 
one of the United States ships, at which signal the order 
was given to lower the castle's Russian flag. Scarcely 
had the sound of the American guns lost themselves in 
echo when the Russian batteries boomed forth, and the 
American flag gayly mounted to the top, while both 
countries' guns sounded a duet, after which the Russian 
governor formally resigned his badge of office to Amer- 
ica's representative, and the land belonged to Uncle 
Sam. That night there was a banquet and ball at the 
castle, and then the Russian families, many of whom 
were cultured, educated people, prepared to leave the 
country in possession of the new owner, so that in a few 
months the natives and United States troops, together 
with unscrupulous adventurers, were the sole occupants. 
Gradually the latter class were superseded by honest 
prospectors and rugged pioneers whose accounts of the 
beauty of the land attracted the tourists who now an- 



312 



JO. ROTHROCK. 



nually flood the coast region where some of the grandest 
scenery in the world is displayed. 

Joseph T. Keefer, who lived at 608 Thirteenth Street, 
Washington, D. C, was present at this ceremony. He ac- 
companied the Seward State Department expedition to 
Alaska in 1867, as aid-de-camp to Capt. T. E. Ketchum. 
The flag that was unfurled by which Alaska was officially 
and formally taken possession of was the first ever hoisted 
over Russian America. As far as can be learned Mr. 
Keefer is the only surviving member of the famous expe- 
dition, having been at the time the trip was made into the 
far North a mere lad of seventeen, while the other mem- 
bers of the party were well advanced in years. 

According to the best records obtainable the last 
member of the party to perish was Jo. Rothrock, a 
young photographer, who died about ten years ago in a 
Philadelphia insane asylum. The poor fellow could 
never get warm after making a second trip to Alaska, 
and while dying he was wrapped in blankets and placed 
by the furnace, although the heat of the summer was 
almost unbearable to the ordinary person. No explana- 
tion was ever offered for his strange condition. 

In 1894 Mr. Keefer was prompted to institute a search 
for the historic bit of bunting which carried him to 
Alaska. Greatly to his satisfaction the flag was found 
in a box behind the original Declaration of Independence, 
in the State Department. Upon being unfurled it was 
discovered that a large portion of the blue field had been 
entirely destroyed by moths, while the remainder of the 



INDIAN HOSTILITY. , j - 

ensign was in comparatively perfect condition. It seems 
that the portion of the flag which had been destroyed 
was once saturated with human blood. The story behind 
this blood stain is harrowing, but Will afford much satis- 
faction to all those patriotically inclined. As told by 
Mr. Keefer, it is as follows : 

" When the United States took possession of Alaska 
it was inhabited by a low class of people, and aside from 
the half-civilized natives, there were numerous ticket-of- 
leave men and ex-convicts from Russia. This latter 
class knew very well that when Americans came upon 
the scene they would have to seek other climes, and 
therefore tried to make our lot as hard a one as possible. 
They told the credulous natives that we were coming to 
make slaves of them ; that having purchased the country 
we had almost bought in all the inhabitants. These wild 
stories made some of the Indians feel resentful toward 
us, and they did everything to bother and hamper our 
work. We first hoisted the Stars and Stripes on the old 
custom-house in Sitka, and afterward floated it to the 
breeze from a Fort Cosmos flagpole. While the feel- 
ing was running strong against us, a native happened 
by the fort, and before we knew it had torn down the 
precious piece of bunting. As he was about to stamp 
on it a rifle shot rang out, the native whirled about and 
fell across the starry field, his life-blood oozing from a 
wound in the temple. After this occurrence there were 
no more attempts at flag destruction." 

Prince Demetrius Maksontoff was the last military 



~ I4 BARANOF CASTLE. 

governor of Russian America, and was the last subject ; 
of the Czar to disburse hospitality in the historic castle. 
Baranof Castle was built in 1813. 

It was situated on the top of a hill and commanded a 
view of the broad expanse of the ocean and of the beau- 
tiful harbor, which was studded with many small islands; 
covered with the freshest of evergreen trees and a profu- 
sion of the loveliest and brightest verdure. The channels j 
between these islands admit of the passage of the largest 
ocean steamers, and on a sunshiny day the view is most: 
charming. 

The castle, an imposing structure, built of logs of huge : 
dimensions, was divided into capacious rooms. On one: 
side was a banquet hall running the whole length of the : 
building, and here, during the occupancy of the Russians, 
many wild scenes of revelry were enacted. In order to 
preserve this structure from decay, our government ex- 
pended $1 1,000 three years ago, but just after the work 
was completed it took fire through some mysterious 
cause and was burned to the ground. 

Many stories are told, some of them replete with wild I 
romance and crime of early days when Russian barons j 
and beautiful princesses passed days and nights within 1 
the castle in joyous living. It is said that Olga ArbuzofT, I 
a niece of Governor Mooraveff, committed suicide by 
thrusting a dagger into her heart on the 5 th day of I 
March, 1826, the very day of her marriage to Count 
Nicholas Vassileff. The count was old, ugly, and of I 
coarse morals, and the lovely princess very naturally 



DOUBLE SUICIDE. 



315 



hated him. Her uncle, however, compelled her to marry 
him, though she insisted that she would take her life if 
he persisted in his demands. The princess was very 
much in love with a young midshipman named Demetrius 
Davidoff, who was young, handsome, and an accomplished 
gentleman, and whom the governor, when he found they 
were in love with each other, sent away on a six months' 
cruise. In the meantime the nuptials between the 
princess and the count were hurried to a consummation. 
The very night of the wedding the young lover returned 
and went immediately to the castle. As soon as the 
princess saw him she uttered a cry, and rushing into his 
arms, snatched his dagger from its sheath and plunging 
it into her breast, fell to the floor dead. The horror- 
stricken youth immediately drove it into his own heart 
and fell dead by the side of his sweetheart. The follow- 
ing day they were both buried in the same grave. From 
one of the windows in the banquet hall their last resting 
place is pointed out, a single Greek cross marking a 
single mound. 

Having been known as Russian America up to this 
time, a new name had to be found. " American Siberia," 
"Zero Islands," and other appellations were suggested, 
but the present name was finally chosen on the solicita- 
tion of Sumner. It means the "great land," and was 
the native name for the southern peninsula. 

The most informal military occupation was the only 
sign of the new order of things in Alaska until in 1870 
it was made a collection district with the port of entry 



316 



FORM OF GOVERNMENT. 



at Sitka, the ancient as well as the modern seat of 
government. 

A civil form of government was not provided for the 
territory until May 17th, 1884. The administration of the 
law was then put into the hands of a governor. John H. 
Kinkead was the first governor from 1884 to 1885. 
Then followed Alfred P. Swineford, 1885 to 1889; 
Lyman E. Knapp, 1889 to l %93 5 James Sheakley 1893 to 
1897, and President McKinley has just sent out Mr. 
J. G. Brady, of Indiana, to hold the office during what 
will be the most exciting period Alaskan history has 
known. 

The territory has never been represented in the 
United States Congress and the only recognition she 
has received from the Federal government indicative of 
an equal standing with other Territories was an invita- 
tion to be represented at the World's Fair. Both the 
Republican and Democratic National Conventions have 
received and seated delegates from Alaska. 

In 1889 the Republicans of the territory drafted a 
memorial to the Republican members of the United 
States Senate and House of Representatives, and as it 
shows what all parties in Alaska want in the shape of 
legislation from the Federal government it is interesting. 
It reads as follows : 

"We, the Republicans of Alaska in convention as- 
sembled, respectfully represent to your honorable body, 
that on this the fifth day of November, 1889, a day when 
the Republicans in the various States and Territories of 



MEMORIAL TO CONGRESS. , j y 

the Union are contesting for the principles of our great 
party, we are denied that sacred privilege. 

"Among the great territories of the West we alone 
stand a monument representing complete and utter 
isolation and non-representation. With an area suffi- 
cient to form a dozen States, with resources unnum- 
bered and unlimited, with no manner of expressing our 
just needs or to demand our just rights, with a popula- 
tion of upwards of ten thousand whites and fifty thou- 
sand natives, among whom are many intelligent and 
industrious, we come to you for relief. 

" With no means of acquiring title to property in 
which our capital is invested and our labor is expended, 
we ask the passage of such laws as will afford us relief 
in this direction. 

"With many" of our people desirous of securing land 
upon which they can engage in farming, stock-raising, 
dairying, and other pursuits of husbandry, we ask that 
the homestead laws be extended in such manner as will 
open up this domain for that class of our citizens. 

" With hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in 
(the fish industry we ask the passage of such laws as will 
secure titles to their property, and encourage the de- 
velopment of one of our greatest resources, and one 
which is fast becoming valuable to the nation at lar^e. 

" With vast forests extending throughout the territory 
Ave ask that the present laws relative to the cutting of 
timber be so modified as to allow it to be used for do- 
mestic purposes by the canneries in the packing and 



,jg JUDICIARY OF ALASKA. 

exportation of their fish, and by parties actually engaged 
in manufacturing enterprises within the territory, and 
the exportation of furniture and other wooden-wares, 
etc., etc., and manufactured from our native timber. 

" The judiciary of Alaska is anomalous, lying between 
and dependent upon the general laws of the United 
States and the general laws of the State of Oregon, and 
having no true basis from which it can be interpreted. 
Therefore we ask that a code of laws be enacted for the 
District of Alaska, suitable to our wants and circum- 
stances and made applicable to our growing industries 
and communities. 

" To-day Alaska stands alone among the great terri- 
tories of the West without a representative upon the 
floor of Congress, and we deem it unjust that a longer 
denial of the rights accorded other portions of our 
country should be imposed upon us." 

In the fall of 1894 this paper was indorsed by a 
people's convention, held in Juneau, and Thomas S. 
Nowell was chosen delegate to Congress. 

Very few people in the United States, even among the 
more intelligent and educated classes, fully appreciate 
the immensity of the territory which was added to the 
public domain by the purchase of Alaska. The total 
area of the United States proper, including the fully 
organized territories, is 2,970,000 square miles. Alaska 
proper in the mainland contains an area of 580,107 
square miles ; the islands of Alexander Archipelago, off 
the southeastern coast, contain 31,205 square miles, and 



SIZE OF ALASKA. ,, j Q 

the Aleutian Islands, 6,391 square miles. In other words 
Alaska with its adjacent islands embraces more square 
miles of territory than twenty-one States of the Union 
east of the Mississippi River ; that is, all the New Eng- 
land States, Delaware, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, 
Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North 
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, 
Virginia, and West Virginia — States that are represented 
in Congress by forty-two Senators and two hundred rep- 
resentatives. The numerous islands, creeks, and inlets 
of Alaska lengthen out its coast line to 7,860 miles, an 
extent greater than that of the eastern coast line of the 
United States. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE BOUNDARY DISPUTE. 

Two Ends of the International Dispute— Mt. St. Elias a Settled Point— The 
Passage of 141st Meridian Through the Gold Fields— The Olney- 
Pauncefote Treaty— The Evidence of Old Time Treaties -Behm or 
Portland Canal ?— Canadian Claims to Territory Administered by the 
United States— Changes in Canadian Map— The Removal of the 
Metlakatla Indians from Canadian to United States Territory— The 
Possession of Juneau and Dyea. 

THERE are two distinct and separate features in the 
discussion which has been carried on during recent 
years between the United States Department of State and 
the British Foreign Office anent the Alaska boundary. 
It is difficult to decide which of these issues is the more 
important. The one refers to the location of the 141st 
meridian in its passage from Mt. St. Elias to the Arctic 
Ocean. The Yukon gold fields lie about midway be- 
tween the two extremities of this part of the Alaskan 
boundary line, and in view of the greatly enhanced value 
of this territory both nations will insist on the greatest 
accuracy being observed in its location. Inasmuch as 
the 141st meridian is an imaginary line, indisputably de- 
fined as to its direction by astronomical considerations and 
rules, its final placing is only a question of time and the 
accuracy which is brought to bear in placing the defining 
monuments by the engineers making up the dual com- 
320 



ANGLO-AMERICAN DISPUTE. 331 

mission which will eventually be appointed by the high 
contending parties to carry on the work. 

The other main feature of this Anglo-American dis- 
pute refers to the boundary line in its passage from 
the peak of Mt. St. Elias in a southeasterly direction 
down the coast to Portland Canal, as the United States 
claims, or only to Behm Canal, as Canada proposes. 
This side of the contention gains its importance from 
the fact that upon its settlement rests the jurisdiction 
over Dyea, which controls the entrances to the Chilcat 
and Chilkoot Passes and the gold fields of the Yukon, 
and many other points of commercial vantage on and 
near the coast. 

DISPUTED BOUNDARY LINE. 

With the intention of definitely clearing up the north- 
ern end of the boundary dispute, ex-Secretary Olney 
and Sir Julian Pauncefote, the British Ambassador at 
Washington, drew up a treaty which was to provide for 
the location of the 141st meridian, and the same was 
laid before the Senate on February 23d of the present 
year. That the time is ripe for a definite adjustment of 
these differences may be seen from the fact that in the 
most recent map published by the Dominion Govern- 
ment, both Miller and Glacier Creeks are claimed for 
the British empire. If this claim should be allowed to 
Great Britain, it would mean that the major part of the 
diggings on Forty-Mile Creek, and nearly all on Sixty- 
Mile Creek would be on Canadian soil, and the owners 



322 UNITED STATES JURISDICTION. 

thereof would be subject to the onerous laws which 
have recently been enacted by the Dominion Govern- 
ment. But fortunately for the American miner on the 
Yukon and its tributaries, the home government does 
not propose to accept this Canadian dictum. A recent 
report of the United States Surveyors, as to the bound- 
ary line in this region, said : " In substance, these deter- 
minations throw the diggings at the mouth of Forty- 
Mile Creek within the territory of the United States. 
The whole valley of Birch Creek, another most valuable 
gold-producing part of the country, is also in the terri- 
tory of the United States. Most of the gold is to the 
west of the crossing of the 141st meridian, at Forty- 
Mile Creek. If we produce the 141st meridian on a 
chart, the mouth of Miller's Creek, a tributary of Sixty- 
Mile Creek, and a valuable gold region, is five miles 
west in an air line, or seven miles according to the wind- 
ings of the stream — all within the territory of the United 
States. In substance, the only places in the Yukon 
region where gold in quantities has been found, are, 
therefore, all to the west of the boundary line between 
Canada and the United States." 

These words were written, of course, before the dis- 
coveries in the Klondike valley, which is indisputably far 
within the Canadian territory. 

This official utterance shows that the United States 
believes itself to have jurisdiction over nearly all of the 
gold-bearing country of the far north that has been thus 
far discovered, except Klondike River. 



TERMS OF THE TREATY. ^C 

Congress adjourned without ratifying the treaty above 
referred to, so that until it reconvenes there is no chance 
of further light being thrown upon the subject, except 
through surveys made by private parties, which latter, 
of course, will have to be proven and ratified before 
they can become a part of an international understand- 
ing. On the proposed treaty being gone over by the 
Senate's Committee on Foreign Relations, it was feared 
that the clause in which Great Britain gives us Mt. St. 
Elias in most gracious condescension might be a catch 
by which our acceptance of the mountain might be taken 
as an abandonment of our claim to a southeastern 
boundary within " ten marine leagues of the windings 
of the coast." Mt. St. Elias is within twenty-eight 
miles of the coast, and hence it is contended it is Amer- 
ican territory anyhow. In view of this the Senate Com- 
mittee on Foreign Affairs, as a precautionary measure, 
recommended that the treaty be amended so as to declare 
specifically that the acceptance of the peak as a bound- 
ary mark in determining the 141st meridian shall not be 
construed as a concession of any territory which the 
United States may claim under its purchase from Russia 
along the sea-coast. 

THE AMENDED TREATY. 

The following is a full text of the treaty, as sent to 
the United States Senate and British Privy Council for 
ratification : 

Article i. — Each Government shall appoint one com- 



326 



IN CASE OF DISAGREEMENT. 



missioner, with whom may be associated such surveyors, , 
astronomers, and other assistants as each Government l 
may elect. 

The commissioners shall at as early a period as practi- 
cal proceed to trace and mark under their joint direc- 
tion, and by joint operations in the field, so much of the 
141st meridian of west longitude as is necessary to be 
defined for the purpose of determining the exact limits of I 
the territory ceded to the United States by the treaty be- 
tween the United States and Russia, of March 30, 1867. 

Inasmuch as the summit of Mt. St. Elias, although; 
not ascertained to be in fact upon said 141st meridian, 
is so nearly concident therewith that it may conveniently, 
be taken as a visible landmark whereby the initial parti 
of said meridian shall be established, it is agreed that! 
the Commissioners, should they conclude that it is advis-.; 
able so to do, may deflect the most southerly portion oft] 
said line so as to make it range with the summit of Mt! 
St. Elias, such deflection not to extend more than twenty;, 
geographical miles northwardly from the initial point. 

Article 2. — The data relating to determinations al- 
ready made at this time by either of the two Govern-! 
ments concerned, of points on or near the 141st meridianrj 
for the purpose of fixing its position, shall be submitted 
by each Government to the Commissioners, who shall 
decide which of the results of the determination shall be* 
adopted by them. 

In case of disagreement between the Commissioners 
as to the correct geographical co-ordinates of one and 



RATIFICATION OF THE TREATY. 327 

the same point determined by either of the two Govern- 
ments, separately, a position midway between the two 
locations in question, of the 141st meridian, shall be 
adopted, provided the discrepancy between them shall 
not exceed 1,000 feet. 

In case of a greater discrepancy a new joint determi- 
nation shall be made by the Commissioners. 

Article 3. — The location of the 141st meridian as 
determined hereunder shall be marked by intervisible 
objects, natural or artificial, at such distances apart as 
the Commissioners shall agree upon, and by such addi- 
tional marks as they shall deem necessary, and the line 
when and where thus marked, in whole or in part, shall 
be deemed to permanently define for all international 
[purposes the 141st meridian mentioned in the treaty of 
March 30, 1867, between the United States and Russia, 
land in the treaty of February 28-16,* 1825, between 
Great Britain and Russia. 

WORK OF THE COMMISSIONERS. 

The location of the marks shall be described by 
such views, maps, and other means as the Commis- 
sioners shall decide upon, and duplicate records of 
these descriptions shall be attested by the Commis- 
sioners jointly and be by them deposited with their 
respective Governments, together with their final re- 
port hereinafter mentioned. 

j * That is, February 16, old style, the Russians at that time not using the reformed 
calendar. 



328 THE LINE OF DEMARKATION. 

Article 4. — Each Government shall bear the ex- 
penses incident to the employment of its own ap- 
pointees and of the operations conducted by them, 
but the cost of material used in permanently marking 
the meridian, and of its transportation, shall be borne 
jointly and equally by the two Governments. 

Article 5. — The Commissioners shall diligently; 
prosecute the work to its completion and they shalll 
submit to their respective Governments from time to 
time, and at least once in every calendar year, a joint 
report of progress, and a final comprehensive report 
upon the completion of the whole work. 

The present convention shall be duly ratified by the 
President of the United States of America, by and 
with the advice and consent of the Senate thereof, 
and by her Britannic Majesty, and the ratifications 
shall be exchanged at Washington or in London as 
soon as possible within twelve months from the date 
hereof. 

In faith whereof, we, the respective plenipotentiaries, 
have signed this convention and have hereunto affixed 
our seals. 

Done in duplicate in Washington, the thirtieth day 
of January, one thousand eight hundred and ninety- 

s ' Richard Olney. [Seal.] 

Julian Pauncefote. [Seal.] 

Up to 1884 both countries were practically at one as 
to the boundary line from Mt. St. Elias to the southeast 



TEN MARINE LEAGUES. 



3 2 9 



^According to the terms of the treaty between Russia and 
Great Britain, the United States, in purchasing Alaska in 
1867, acquired all of Russia's rights. In describing the 
southeastern boundary the Anglo-Russian treaty reads : 

TERMS OF THE TREATY. 

"The line of demarkation between the possessions 
jof the high contracting parties upon the coast of the 
continent and the islands of America to the northwest 
shall be drawn in the following manner : Commencing 
from the southernmost point of the island called Prince 
of Wales Island, which point lies in the parallel of 
54 degrees 40 minutes north latitude, and between the 
131st degree and the 133d degree of west longitude, the 
same line shall ascend to the north along the channel 
called Portland Channel, as far as the point of the con- 
tinent where it strikes the 56th degree of north latitude ; 
from this last-mentioned point the line of demarkation 
shall follow the summit of the mountains situated par- 
allel to the coast as far as the point of intersection of 
the 141st degree of west longitude (of the same 
meridian), and finally, from the said point of inter- 
section, the said meridian line of the 141st degree, in its 
prolongation as far as the frozen ocean, shall form the 
limit between the Russian and British possessions on the 
continent of America to the northwest. 

LIMIT OF BRITISH POSSESSIONS. 

"Whenever the summit of the mountains which ex- 
tend in a direction parallel to the coast from the 56th 



g^o United states possessions. 

degree of north latitude to the point of intersection of 
the 141st degree of west longitude shall prove to be atj 
the distance of more than ten marine leagues from the 
ocean, the limit between the British possessions and the J 
line of coast which is to belong to Russia, as above i 
mentioned (that is to say, the limit to the possessions 
ceded by this convention), shall be formed by a line par- 
allel to the winding of the coast, and which shall never 
exceed the distance of ten marine leagues therefrom." 

On all maps from 1825 down to 1884 the boundary 
line had been shown as, in general terms, parallel to the 
winding of the coast and thirty-five miles from it. 

Now, however, the Canadians claim that as there is no 
chain of mountains "parallel to the coast " from the head 
of Portland Canal, northwest, that the language of the 
treaty calls for the placing of this line on the summits of 
those mountains that are nearest to it ; this would bring 
the line fairly down to the ocean itself, and hardly leave 
more than a suggestion of mainland possession for the 
United States. 

That claim is very properly disputed by our people. 
It seems to me quite clear that the Russians, when they 
developed this boundary in 1825, having full knowledge 
of the country, which the British did not, made that ten- 
marine league limit to insure themselves against being 
cut off from absolute control of the coast in question ; 
that control they were bound to have, and they easily 
secured it in this treaty ; they also exercised it. The 
Russians knew that no continuous mountain chain was 



OBJECT OP THE CANADIANS. 33 1 

there, although the only good charts of that region in 
1825, were Vancouver's, and indicated such a range. 
These maps of Vancouver were the ones studied in 
framing the convention, and guided the British. 

The first suggestion on the part of Canada that we 
did not hold this "thirty mile strip," was during the 
Cassiar mining rush up the Stickeen River from the coast, 
in 1876-77. A Canadian customs house was hastily put 
up at the mouth of that river, and duties were levied ; 
but our miners denied the levy — declared that it was 
made on American territory, and the Canadians then 
moved their custom house up to a point full thirty miles 
above the mouth ; there they were secure, and the duties 
were collected. 

The object of the Canadians in pushing this claim is 
to have control of the mouths of the Stickeen, Chilkaht 
and Tahko Rivers, and the control of the deep-water 
ocean inlets between the foot of Mt. St. Elias and Ft. 
Simpson. As it is, we command all practical ingress and 
egress from that British American region above the 56th 
degree of north latitude, from and to the sea. 

American prospectors have evidence of great mineral 
wealth in the ravines and ledges of this " thirty-mile 
strip," which belongs to Alaskan territory; they have 
been pushing the State Department for several years to 
settle definitely the boundary line. The Canadians have 
thus far outgeneraled our people by staving off the set- 
tlement, and getting a joint commission appointed, in 
1892, which was not permitted to define the line, but to 



332 INTERPRETATION OF TREATY. 

gather data. This commission was appointed in Au- 
gust, 1892, and it was terminated on the 1st day of Jan- 
uary, 1895. 

In this way Canadian engineers have been permitted 
to accurately inspect and survey every foot of our coast 
line in that "thirty-mile strip," and locate every topo- 
graphical feature of its mountains, hills, plains and val- 
leys. This gives them a great advantage not hitherto 
possessed by them. 

The Canadians, with great shrewdness, in 1 884, began 
to work upon an interpretation of Article I, of that Treaty 
of Cession from Russia to the United States, March 1 3, 
1867, which defines the limits of the regions conveyed. 
That boundary between the British possessions and 
Alaska, as specified in this Treaty of Cession, is precisely 
word for word as defined in that convention between 
Russia and Great Britain of February 28, 1825, as given 
above. 

In 1884 an official Canadian map showed a marked 
deflection in this line at its south end. Instead of pass- 
ing up Portland Canal (as the Portland "Channel" men- 
tioned above is now always called), this Canadian map 
showed the boundary as passing up Behm Canal, an 
arm of the sea some sixty or seventy miles due west of 
Portland Canal, this change having been made on the 
bare assertion that the words " Portland Channel," as 
inserted, were an error. By this change the line and an 
area of American territory about equal in size to Con- 
necticut was transferred to British territory. 



LATEST OFFICIAL MAP. n -, , 

There are three facts which militate against this 
seizure. In the first place, the British Admiralty, 
when surveying- the northern limit of the British Colum- 
bian possessions in 1868, one year after the cession of 
Alaska, surveyed Portland Canal and not Behm Canal, 
thus by implication admitted this canal as the boundary 
line. (2) The region now claimed by British Columbia 
was at that time occupied by a military post of the United 
States without objection or protest on the part of British 
Columbia. (3) Annette Island, in the middle of this 
region, was, by an Act of Congress four years ago, set 
apart as a reservation for the use of the Metlakatla 
Indians, who sought asylum under the American flag to 
escape annoyances experienced under the Canadian gov- 
ernment, and the British government did not enter any 
protest. 

THE GRAB AT LYNN CANAL. 

Of vastly more importance than the preceding is the 
grab made at Lynn Canal, the northernmost extension 
of the Alexander Archipelago, which runs north of 
Juneau, and is the land outlet for the Yukon trade. The 
official Canadian map of 1884 carried the boundary line 
around the head of this canal; another Canadian map 
three years later carried the line across the head of the 
canal in such a manner as to throw its head-waters into 
British territory; still later, Canadian maps carry the 
line not across the head of the canal, but cross near its 
mouth, some sixty or seventy miles south of the former 
line so as to practically take in Juneau, or, at least, all the 



334 SUB-PORT OF ENTRY. 

land immediately back of it. And the very latest official 
map, just published at Ottawa, while it runs no line at 
all southeast of Alaska, prints the legend "British 
Columbia" over portions of the Lynn Canal that are 
now administered by the United States. In fact, the 
It must be remembered, however, that these aggres- 
sions of Great Britain, or rather Canada acting for Great 
Britain, are largely on paper, as the United States, while 
negligent of Alaska, has never abandoned its three ma- 
rine leagues claim, and hence the grabs have not yet 
been incorporated in Canadian territory. The probable 
futility of these ten years of effort since 1887 is shown 
in the fact that Dyea, which Secretary Gage designated 
the other day as a sub-port of entry in the Juneau dis- 
trict, is well within the lines of Canada, according to 
British claims in 1887 and in 1897, an d yet they have 
done nothing to molest United States administration 
there nor United States control of Lynn Canal, nor of 
the Chilkoot Pass. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE PRIBYLOV, OR FUR SEAL ISLANDS OF ALASKA. 

Chase of the Sea Otter — Pribylov's Discovery — The Seal Island — Educating 
the Young — System of Reproduction — Movements of Seal Herds — • 
Male Seals Fighting — Killing Bachelor Seals — Shooting and Spear- 
ing — Killing Young Males Only — Blaine's Plan — Blunders — Vain 
Efforts at Pension — The Boundary Question. 

ONE of the most interesting and valuable features of 
the Russian-American purchase by our govern- 
ment in 1867, was that fur seal industry of Alaska, as 
embodied then, on the Pribylov Islands in Bering Sea; 
and it is remarkable that, at the time of the transfer of 
this territory, very little or nothing was known of it in 
this country, even to a single soul. 

It was my fortune to land on the Seal Islands in April, 
1872, as the agent of the Smithsonian Institution and the 
Treasury Department, for the special purpose of making 
a study of these animals and collections. During the 
seasons of 1872-74 and '76 inclusive, I gave the rook- 
eries my undivided attention, and again in 1890, by the 
authority of Congress, I again visited them. I have, 
therefore, by the accident of my life, been the first to 
publish a succinct and connected life history of these 
animals and their habitat ; this study of the fur seal put 
forth by me in 1874-82, has been confirmed and un- 
changed by the review of many naturalists who have 
come after me. 

335 



336 CHASE OF THE SEA OTTER. 

But, while the life and nature of the fur seal have not 
varied in its details, yet the condition of the herds on the 
Pribylov Islands has altered so much since the date of 
my earliest work, as to be fairly described by a single 
word to-day, "ruined". The fierce greed of man has 
well nigh ruined the industry — it will do so, as r matters 
are now in hand at Washington and Ottawa. 

The fact that I have been fortunate enough to see these 
Pribylov fur seal herds before they were decimated by 
the hand of man, and to have made indelible records of 
their fine form and condition at that time, recurs with 
great pleasure to me whenever I now take the subject up. 

The chase of the sea otter by Russian and Cossack 
" promyshlineks " or hunters, opened Kamschatka to 
them, and then Alaska was discovered in turn by Bering, 
during 1741-42: a horde of eager sea otter hunters 
followed him, so that by 1762 they had located the Aleu- 
tian Islands and progressed as far east as Kodiak. By 
1 780, the abundant supply of sea otter in Alaskan waters 
ceased, and the Russian fur hunters began seriously to 
consider what was next in order. They found that the 
Chinese market made a good demand for fur seal skins, 
and that as many as could be secured at any one season 
never affected the price. The manager of the Oonalas- 
kan district of the Aleutian Chain, for one of the several 
trading companies, determined to search for the landing 
place of these animals, either in the Bering Sea north 
of the Aleutian passes or south in the Pacific ; he noted 
the fact, that every June and July great numbers of fur 
seals were seen swimming north through these passes, 



PRIBYLOV'S DISCOVERY. 337 

and every October and November they swam back again 
through these same channels into the broad waste of the 
Pacific Ocean out of the Sea of Bering. 

The old Aleut shamans also had a legend that the fur 
seals bred on an island in Bering Sea, somewhere north 
of the Islands of Oomnak and Oonalaska, but where, 
they could not say. So, thus stimulated, Russian search 
was made with great energy, chiefly in the Ocean, south, 
rather than in Bering Sea, north, for these Islands upon 
which the fur seal must breed, as its antarctic brother did 
in the southern hemisphere. 

Finally, after six years of steady search, Captain Gear- 
man Pribylov, commanding a small sloop, the "Saint 
George ", ran upon the object of his desire in a thick fog 
one close, dull day in July, 1 J&6. He had discovered the 
breeding islets of the Alaskan fur seal, and the group 
has ever since been known under his name. The dis- 
covery of Pribylov could not be kept secret ; a dozen 
vessels sailed with hunters, in his wake, and from 1787 
until 1804, the butchery and waste of life on these islands 
was something brutal and greedy beyond all record. 

The whole Russian-American territory passed by order 
of the Emperor Paul into the hands of a single corpora- 
tion in 1799 : by 1804, the iron-hand of old Baranov was 
laid upon the Pribylov Islands, and this cruel killing was 
then and there checked. 

Very soon these seal islands of Alaska became the 
sole solid financial backing of the Russian-American 
Company ; but, as the business of the company grew 
more and more embarrassed by bad management at 



338 THB SEAL ISLANDS. 

Sitka, even these sources of revenue failed to float the 
corporation. 

The Pribylov group of seal islands consists of two 
small islands, St. Paul and St. George, with two islets, 
Otter and Walrus Islands, which are ranged around St. 
Paul, the former six miles south and the latter six miles 
east. St. Paul, which has only thirty-three square miles 
of superficial area, with forty-two miles of shore, is the 
largest of the quartette ; St. George has twenty-seven 
square miles of superficial area and twenty-nine miles 
of coast line ; Otter Island about one square mile, and 
Walrus Islet a mere rock of less than five acres of sur- 
face just elevated above the surf line. 

St. Paul is the chief resort of the fur seal ; it held in 
1872-74 just seventeen-eighteenths of the entire num- 
ber of 4,500,000 fur seals of all ages which I ascertained 
to be on the fifteen different " rookeries " or breeding 
grounds that are well known on the islands. This 

o 

group of seal islands is, in round numbers, 200 miles 
distant from the nearest point of the mainland of 
Alaska, Cape Newenham, Bristol Bay ; and Oonalaska 
Island of the Aleutian Chain, is about the same distance 
from it in the south, while St. Matthew Island, almost 
equidistant, in the north. The Russian Seal Islands are 
750 miles directly to the westward, and they, in turn, are 
situated about 100 miles off the Kamschatkan coast in 
this same sea of Bering. 

On the Pribylov Islands the fur seal found, ages ago, 
that perfect isolation from deadly enemies like men and 
polar bears, which combined with a cool, moist, sunless 



a£ 



EDUCATING THE YOUNG. 339 

climate, makes its existence secure on this earth. Its 
intelligence prevented its landing to breed and rest even 
for an hour on any other land in all Alaska or the lower 
Northwest coast. But, since man finally discovered its 
retreat in 1786, the fur seal has had several close calls 
to utter extermination. One is now pending at this hour. 

The fur seal is the best organized of all amphibians ; 
it is equally at home on land or in the sea. But it draws 
all its sustenance by fishing and repairs to the land for 
the chief purpose of breeding. It cannot bring forth its 
young in the water ; the new born fur seal cannot swim, 
and requires a land residence of three to four months after 
birth, before it can go to sea. Indeed, it cannot swim 
when it first blunders into the water. It has to apply 
itself diligently to learning how to keep its head above 
the surface by many successive lessons before it suc- 
ceeds. These lessons are, however, self-imposed. The 
little fellow's instinct tells it that this must be accom- 
plished. When he once becomes able to master his 
body so as to sport easily in the water, the young seal 
rapidly reaches the perfect stroke, and becomes the 
most skillful of all watermen. 

The fur seals are born about equal in number as to 
sex : the males and females grow for the first year with 
little difference in size, shape or color. Then the males 
begin to lengthen out and increase their weight far in 
excess of the females. When the male is mature at 
six years, he will weigh 400 to 500 pounds, have a length 
of six-and-one-half to seven feet, while the female is 
adult at three years, and weighs but eighty or ninety 



34-0 SYSTEM OF REPRODUCTION. 

pounds, with a length of body scarcely exceeding three- 
and-a-half feet. 

The order and system of reproduction of the fur seal 
on the Pribylov rookeries or breeding grounds is a very 
remarkable and interesting one. No other wild animal 
has the elaborate and regular method about its move- 
ments during its breeding season that is characteristic of 
the fur seal ; and, with the single exception of those 
immense herds of the buffalo on our western plains as 
seen by our pioneers sixty or seventy years ago, no 
other mammal of a high organization ever massed itself 
in such great numbers that the knowledge of a naturalist 
can cite. 

The Pribylov Islands of Alaska, the Commander 
group of Kamschatka, and a small rock in the Okotsk 
Sea are the only known breeding places of the fur seal 
in the Northern Hemisphere. In the Antarctic there are 
over twenty well-known islands which were during 1786 
and 1 814 visited as fur seal resorts, until by 1860-62 they 
were practically swept clean of this seal life by the greed 
of human butchers, and to this day the Antarctic rook- 
eries are desolate — only a scattered band or so of tens 
and hundreds now is found there, in place of those hun- 
dreds of thousands and millions that originally existed. 

Let us follow the movements of the fur seal as it 
boldly and quietly orders them on the Pribylov Islands. 
The breeding season closes, and the pups are all weaned 
by the middle or end of October, then the fur seals all 
leave the islands. Striking out due south directly for the 
Pacific Ocean through the large passes of the Aleutian 



MOVEMENTS OF SEAL HERDS. 



0^0 



Chain ; they journey in the open ocean south-east by 
east, so that by the middle or end of December, their 
advance agents are in sight, off the California, Oregon, 
and Washington coasts ; then the herd turns up along 
the trend of the northwest coast, back into Bering Sea, 
so as to return as a body by the 4th to 15th of July ; 
the old males are all on the islands as early as the 1st 
of June, and all classes are back by the 20th of July. 

In this order of progression, the fur seal never lands on 
any land, inlet, rocks, or reef, while going from and re- 
turning- to the islands of its birth : it makes an oceanic 
transit of over five thousand miles in this migration, and 
subsists upon pelagic fishes and squid and crustaceans 
while out in the deep sea ; then, when going up the 
coast on soundings, it feeds fat upon the runs of herring, 
cod, sculpin, salmon, and numerous other piscine forms. 

The adult male fur seal lands first of all his kind, and 
alone ; he "hauls out" on the breeding ground, or "rook- 
ery", as early as the 6th of May, and all of his class are 
there by the 1st of June. The first females never arrive 
before the 4th to 10th of June, and the great body of 
their kind do not put in an appearance until the 10th to 
20th of July. 

The normal ratio of males to females on these breed- 
ing grounds is about fifteen or twenty of the latter to 
one of the former. This makes the fur seal an eminent 
polygamist. The breeding grounds rise on rocky slopes 
directly from the waters edge, above tide and surf wash, 
and are barred from all approach to the young males or 
"bachelors" by the determined opposition of the adult 



344 MALE SEALS FIGHTING. 

and old males, or "seacatchie." The adult male only, can 
hold his own in fighting with his species. He must attain 
the age of six years and have a weight of at least 350 
pounds, before he can ever presume to successfully battle 
with an older male. 

From the hour that the male fur seal hauls out onto 
his station early in May until the end of the breeding 
season early in August, he never leaves his post on that 
ground for a single moment, day or night. In other 
words he presents the anomalous spectacle of enduring 
a fast of three consecutive months and sustaining himself 
during this long period without food or water, by the 
absorption of his own fat. During this period he is sel- 
dom asleep ; he is incessantly on the move, and until the 
arrival of the females in June and July, he is busy a large 
portion of the time in fierce fighting with his rivals which 
occupy the posts around him. 

The females land in obedience to the necessity of 
giving birth to their offspring on land, and they seldom 
come ashore until the hour of their delivery is close at 
hand. They give birth to but one pup, twins having never 
been recorded. The time of the gestation is almost ex- 
actly twelve months. After the pup is born, the mother 
seal rests a few days, suckles her young one, then goes 
off to sea to feed on fishing grounds, often 100 to 180 
miles distant. She will be absent two or four days be- 
fore returning ; she singles out her own pup and permits 
no other to nurse from her nipples. Again she remains 
only a few days, ere she puts off to the feeding grounds 
at sea, to return as before. This going and coming to 



KILLING BACHELOR SEALS. 345 

feed and nurse the pup, continues with that mother seal 
until she weans her offspring in October or November. 
She weans it by abruptly abandoning it to its own devices. 

The young males from one year old up to six, are 
obliged to keep away from the rookeries by their fear of the 
consequences of meeting their old sires. They haul out 
on the sand beaches and the uplands between the breed- 
ing grounds in troops of hundreds and thousands by 
themselves ; they also, like the females, feed at frequent 
intervals and do not sustain any protracted fasting as 
the breeding males do. 

Until the development of the open water or " pelagic " 
hunting of fur seals in 1886 was made, the killing of 
these Alaskan animals was confined to a selection of 
100,000 young " bachelors" on these islands annually: 
but, when the pelagic fleet, chiefly Canadian hunters, 
fairly got to work, the pressure of death on this fur seal 
herd of the Pribylov Islands, was too great. The industry 
has been ruined, and to-day, the seals are not one tenth 
of their number, as I found it in 1872-74. 

The practice of killing on land was to select out of the 
herds of young males only the best grades, i. e. the two, 
three, and four year-old males ; those younger did not 
possess as good fur on their skins : while the older ones 
had that fur harsh and ragged on their necks or withers, 
where it grows roughly like the mane on a horse, and is 
known as a "wig" in sealing parlance. 

Two or three thousand of these young males were 
daily driven up to the killing grounds, near the salt 
houses on the islands, during the season, June istto 



346 SHOOTING AND SPEARING. 

July 20th, killed and skinned there, and the pelts cured ] 
in large kenches or salt bins; then these skins were rolled ] 
into bundles of two skins each, corded up securely, and 3 
so shipped to London, via San Francisco and New York. 
The pelagic catch goes also to London, via Victoria and 3 
New York. 

If the killing is properly conducted on land it is a dis- 
criminate and legitimate operation ; it will not injure the 
regular supply of fresh male life for service in the rook- 
eries, and no females are ever disturbed, much less 1 
destroyed by this method. That this land killing can be 
and has been abused is true ; but that is the fault of the 
supervision, and not of the system. 

The pelagic killing is done by shooting and spearing 
fur seals in the open waters of the ocean as these ani- 
mals are feeding or sleeping. A peculiarity of the fun 
seal is that it rests as comfortably in the water sleeping 
on its back, with its flippers folded onto its breast and 
abdomen, as it does on the land. When so resting at 
sea, if a hunter drifts down upon it with care as to wind, I 
so as to come up to it from the leeward, he can get nean 
enough to hurl a spear into its body and secure its skin.i 
The seals also when traveling at sea or feeding, always 
rise at intervals to put their heads and necks high out 
above water for several moments to breathe and to sur-' 
vey. This is the moment that the hunter enjoys to shoot 
them in. He uses a rifle, but generally a shot gun withl 
buckshot. A great many wild shots are made neces- 
sarily, as the weather and the water combine to toss 
the boat, and much loss of life must ensue that is not 
tallied by the seal skins secured. 



KILLING YOUNG MALES ONLY. 347 

The present order of killing on land so as to kill 
nothing but young males has been in vogue ever since 
1835 ; the pelagic system of hunting fur seals has been 
understood ever since 1874, but not actively prosecuted 
by white men until 1886. 

The combined work of killing , on land and in the 
water, therefore, since 1886, has rapidly diminished the 
numbers of these unhappy animals ; so much so that 
their whole massing on the islands this year will not 
equal the tenth part of their fine form and condition 
which I recorded them as possessing in 1872-74. There 
were 4,500,000 of them then. 

In 1887, amidst a general discord in the ranks of our 
people as to whether we really had any exclusive rights 
to shut up the open waters of Bering Sea, and so pre- 
vent pelagic hunting, three small Canadian schooners 
were seized some forty or sixty miles distant from the 
nearest land in Bering Sea. They were taken because 
they were engaged in the hunting of fur seals without a 
license from the Secretary of the United States Treasury, 
agreeably to provisions of Section 1956, Revised Stat- 
utes of the United States. 

After much discussion our best lawyers said the seizure 
was a violation of international law: that Bering Sea was 
not a mare dausum, and so Secretary Bayard released the 
schooners and began to try and secure an international 
agreement with Great Britain, so as to regulate and check 
this hunting of fur seals in the open sea. Bayard was 
unable to carry out his plan before his term of office 
ended, and on the 4th of March, 1889, Mr. Blaine sue- 



348 BLAINE'S PLAN. 

ceeded him. Instead of taking up the course of Bayard 
as it was left to him, Blaine resolved to try another plan 
of settlement : he revamped that claim of jurisdiction 
in the high seas only so as to cover the killing of seals, and 
invented his argument of contra bonos mores. The 
Canadian's took advantage of Mr. Blaine's want of pre- 
cise and accurate knowledge as to seal life details, and 
they furnished a reply to his letter that simply crushed 
him. 

In 1890, the writer of this sketch returned November 
17th, from an investigation into the condition of the 
Alaskan fur seal herds, having been sent up again, as in. 
1874, by order of a special Act of Congress. He urged 
Mr. Blaine to drop all legal arguments into the jurisdic- 
tion question, together with those based on the idea of 
having a property right in a wild animal, and take up in- 
stead the case of saving the seals alone, by an agreement 
with Great Britain. He devised a modus vivendi by which 
all killing of seals on the Pribylov Islands should be pro- 
hibited for a term of seven years, and all open water 
sealing at the same time in the Bering Sea, to be declared 
illegal by Great Britain. Then, this done, to have a joint 
commission of experienced men to visit the islands and 
report fairly on the subject. 

This proposition was bitterly opposed by the Canadians 
and also by the lessees on our side, but the sense and 
decency of this settlement, when it was made known by 
its author, was so strongly endorsed by public opinion 
in Great Britain and this country, that it was put into 
operation June 15, 1891. 



BLUNDERS. 349 

From this moment a series of wretched and humiliating 
blunders have been made by the officers of our govern- 
ment, who have been in charge of the business. The 
case of the United States as made up in Washington 
contained all of those idle legal claims of jurisdiction and 
property right. They were openly opposed by our 
ablest lawyers in this country, and by the consensus of 
the press. Then, our sealing argument was basely mur- 
dered by being brought down to the low level of making 
an uninterrupted plea that no harm was ever done or 
would be done to the seals by the method of land killing, 
while all the most extravagant vaporing about the work 
of pelagic sealing was soberly incorporated. This sad 
mistake on our side, gave the Canadians their opportunity: 
and they improved it so well, that they secured the vic- 
tory. " Thus, they have proved anew the truth of that 
old saying, that "having the strongest end of a contro- 
versy does not signify, if your opponents have the brighter 
men to cope with you." 

The award of the Bering Sea Tribunal was made on 
August 15, 1893 ; it decided against our claims of juris- 
diction in the open waters of Bering Sea ; it denied our 
claims of a property right in a wild animal like the fur 
seal ; it then queerly split the difference between the 
claims of our agents for the land butchers and those of 
the British for the pelagic butchers. In short, under the 
regulations, ordered by the Court, the modus vivendi, by 
Elliott, which is superseded by them, is a real protection, 
while the new articles simply facilitate the destruction of 
the herd. Yet, at the time these idle and costly regula- 



350 VAIN EFFORTS AT REVISION. 

tions were ordered by this Tribunal, our agents at Paris 
declared that they had won a great victory, and had 
saved the seals from pelagic hunting ! 

These regulations of the Tribunal were first put into 
effect in the season of 1894. The result of their operation 
was to demonstrate their utter worthlessness as a means 
of saving the fur seal from indecent and cruel slaughter. 
More seals were killed at sea under their license than 
ever before in the history of the business. This was 
demonstrated by those figures of the catch beyond the 
shadow of a doubt. Then, ever since, our government 
has been trying to secure a revision of the regulations : 
but, up to the writing of this chapter, nothing has been 
effected. Inexperienced naturalists and ignorant officials 
have, on our side, so bungled the case, that the Canadians 
have easily kept the lead and still hold the whip hand, and 
it is safe to predict, that as matters are being directed, 
they will retain the great advantage which they secured 
at Paris, in 1 893. Therefore, as long as fur seals exist on 
the Pribylov Islands, the Canadian hunter will hunt them 
at sea : and as far as a source of revenue to the public 
treasury of the United States goes, these fur bearing 
rookeries of the Pribylov group have ceased to be. They 
are now and have been ever since 1890, a large annual 
bill of expense to the government, without a dollar of 
revenue to balance the books. 

Unless we free ourselves from the present manage- 
ment of our fur seal case, which degrades our position 
in British eyes to the same level of seal-skinning and 
gain that we charge the Canadian case with, the com- 



THE BOUNDARY QUESTION. 351 

plete extermination of the industry on the Pribylov 
Islands is right at hand ; indeed, the rookeries have been 
commercially ruined, and it would require at least ten 
consecutive years of complete prohibition of seal killing 
on the islands and in Bering Sea, from date, if they are 
to be restored. 

There has been an undue amount of talk about what 
we may demand of Great Britain in the way of revising 
these regulations ; we have no ground, moral or legal, 
to make any demands on Great Britain. What we had, 
we lost entirely and forever, at Paris, in 1893 ; we fairly 
forced that settlement, and we are bound to lay in the bed 
of our making. That we were beaten at Paris, is humili- 
ating and galling, because we had the best ground for 
argument.but we frittered away our credit and our prop- 
perty by putting the business of making up our case for 
the Tribunal into incompetent hands — so incompetent 
that they did not know that they were beaten at each 
and every point when the award was made. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

REINDEER IN ALASKA. 

Alaskan Dogs Must Go — Introduction of Reindeer by Rev. Dr, Sheldon 
Jackson — Both Food and Raiment — Purchasing Station in Siberia — 
Distribution in Alaska — Fleet of Foot and Easily Supported — Rein- 
deer Train Service to the Klondike — Reindeer Milk for Yucon Babies 
— A Siberian Moneymaker — Reindeer to Harness — Character of the 
Fur — Some Figures on the Reindeer Industry in Finland. 

THE discovery of gold far back in the interior of 
Alaska puts an entirely new face on the introduc- 
tion of domestic reindeer into that country. The 
movement was undertaken almost entirely with the ob- 
ject of affording - an adequate food supply to the natives 
of the interior, whose ranks during recent years have 
been very much depleted through starvation and the 
conditions which lead to it. Now, however, a new use 
has been found for the reindeer in Alaska, or rather 
these little animals will be made useful in a way that 
was not anticipated. In Finland and Siberian Russia 
they perform the same duties which dogs do in Alaska. 
It is now proposed to supersede the dogs with reindeer. 
The camps of the Klondike and its neighboring streams 
are inaccessible during eight or nine months of the year 
except by overland journey, and when they have been 
visited during the closed season it has been by couriers 
attended by a dog-train. Dogs are unreliable and treach- 
erous, and, above all, require considerable food for their 
35 2 



HELP OF CONGRESS. 353 

support, which latter must be carried along with them in 
some shape or another. The reindeer, on the contrary, 
is a gentle, tractable animal, and one requiring but little 
food ; the main article of their diet consists of such 
mosses and sprouts as are to be found in the Yukon dis- 
trict all the year round. For this reason they will be in- 
tensely valuable to a miner, and already scores of orders 
for reindeer have been placed with the government by 
Klondikers. 

As the years pass by it becomes more and more evi- 
dent that the introduction of the reindeer into Alaska 
is a complete success. At the outset Dr. Sheldon Jack- 
son's proposition to introduce the domestic reindeer of 
Siberia as a new source of food supply for the famished 
Eskimo of Arctic Alaska was received by so much doubt 
and disfavor that Congress refused to furnish the neces- 
sary appropriation. Private individuals advanced a sum, 
however, to put the project on its feet. With this sum, 
about $2000, Dr. Jackson procured 16 reindeer in 1891 
and 171 in 1892. Congress appropriated $6000 for the 
fiscal year ending June, 1894, to carry on the work. 
This was increased the next year to $7500, and the fol- 
lowing year a like sum granted. Nearly 400 head have 
been purchased in Siberia, and through the birth of 
fawns the number on Alaskan soil has been increased 
to over a thousand. Heretofore the purchasing of the 
reindeer has been done by Russians, who received a 
commission at so much per head. 

The Secretary of State has recently communicated 
with the Czar of Russia, requesting permission for the 



354 INCREASE OF REINDEER. 

Bureau of Education to station a purchasing agent with 
one or two herdsmen at some suitable point on the coast 
of Siberia adjacent to Alaska. It is presumed that this 
request will be granted, and this year the Bureau of 
Education will probably be able to send its own agents 
into the field. 

Herds of reindeer are now located at five places in 
Arctic Alaska — Port Clarence, the main station, under 
the management of a superintendent appointed by the 
Bureau of Education; Cape Prince of Wales, a mission 
of the Congregational Church ; Cape Nome, in charge 
of three experienced native Alaskan apprentices ; the 
Swedish mission, at Golovin Bay, and St. James's Epis- 
copal mission, on the Yukon. The number of reindeer 
at these stations is now i ioo head. At the main station, 
called the Teller Station, during the year 22 deer were 
broken to harness, making in all 52 sled deer in the 
herd, and much time was given to the training of these 
deer for freighting and travelling purposes. In the gen- 
eral plan of distribution it has been the purpose to 
supply the mission stations in the order of their prox- 
imity to the central herd. Some little difficulty was 
experienced with the natives, among whom the report 
was current that only the whites were to receive any 
benefit from the reindeer. It was hard to disabuse their 
minds of this notion, and this was finally accomplished 
only by lending several of the more advanced of the 
native herders about 100 head of deer. Many natives 
are now coming into possession of reindeer of their own, 
and they take great pride in their care. In the future it 



USE OF REINDEER. 355 

is proposed that from two central herding stations, one 
at Port Clarence, near Bering's Strait, and another on the 
Kuskokwim River, north of Bristol Bay, herds of ioo 
deer, with native herders, shall be distributed to the vari- 
ous mission stations. A continuous line of herds will 
then be placed for the entire distance to the important 
stations at St. Michael's, near the mouth of the Yukon 
River. A line of stations might also be established 
along the Yukon to the gold stations at Forty-Mile 
Creek. If two herds of 1 500 each could be established 
at the two main distributing points, experience shows 
that the annual increase of the herd, if well cared for, 
would furnish three herds of 200 each year. 

There is much that is interesting in regard to the plan 
of reaching the Yukon gold district by means of reindeer. 
As has been said, in the original plan for the purchase 
and distribution . of reindeer, reference was mainly had 
to securing a new food-supply for the famishing Eskimos, 
but it is now found that the reindeer are as essential to 
the white man as to the Eskimos. The placer mines of 
the Yukon region are from 25 to 100 miles from the 
Yukon River. The provisions brought from the south 
by the five steamers now in that region and landed upon 
the banks of the river are transported with great diffi- 
culty to the mines. So great was the extremity last 
winter that mongrel Indian dogs cost from $100 to $200 
each for transportation purposes, and the freight charges 
from the river to the mines, thirty miles distant, ranged 
from 15 to 20 cents a pound. The difficulty experienced 
in providing the miners with the necessaries of life has 



556 BETTER THAN DOGS. 

demonstrated the necessity of reindeer transportation. 
Back from the rivers in Alaska there are no roads, and, 
to a great extent, no transportation facilities whatever. 
In the limited travelling of the past dogs have been used, 
but dog-teams are slow, and must be burdened with the 
food for their own maintenance. This food is now put 
up in cans in large quantities by several Chicago houses, 
and consists- of the refuse meat from the slaughter- 
houses, prepared in a way which preserves it. Although 
this food is not so expensive as other meats, the cost is 
high when immense freighting charges must be paid by 
the miners. On the other hand, trained reindeer will 
make in a day two or three times the distance covered 
by a dog-team, and at the end can be turned loose to 
gather their support from the moss, which is always 
accessible. They obtain this by digging away the over- 
lying snow with their hoofs and horns. It is believed 
that the snow-covered fields of Alaska will furnish sup- 
port to millions of these gentle, fleet-footed little animals. 
Reindeer cannot be kept anywhere near the Alaskan 
dog, for the latter kill them with the greatest ease. 

As a food-supply nothing better adapted to the coun- 
try can be imagined. Reindeer meat, either fresh or 
cured, is considered a great delicacy. The skin is soft 
and warm, and can be used for both clothes and shoes. 
Then there is the milk, which is as good as any we buy 
in the city at 8 cents a quart. They are more docile than 
the horse, and are better adapted than any other animal 
for transportation in the climate of Alaska. 

Thus we have embodied in one little animal, aver- 



possibilities. 357 

aging in size from three to five feet in height, meat, 
drink, shoes, clothing, and the means of transportation 
— not to mention his possibilities as a commercial com- 
modity, for his hoofs and horns make the best glue 
known, and his hair has a buoyant quality which makes 
it valuable for life-saving apparatus. In addition to all 
this, he is the only useful animal that can live upon 
such frugal fare as the Alaskan climate affords. Dogs 
must carry their food on their backs, but reindeer feed 
from the soil which they traverse ; and it is estimated 
that the territory of Alaska is capable of sustaining 
9,200,000 of the latter animals, a number which will 
support 287,000 people. 

The only difficulty in the matter is the fact that the 
reindeer have to be imported. Through Dr. Jackson's 
efforts something less than a thousand have already 
been brought from Siberia, and because of the prevail- 
ing ignorance as to the care and herding of the strange 
little beasts six families of Laps were imported along 
with them. A central station was established, and some 
of the most intelligent of the natives taken as appren- 
tices. These are doing well, and many are now capable 
of taking charge of herds themselves. 

Some of the difficulties which Dr. Jackson encountered 
would be amusing if they did not cause so much trouble. 
He had to contend with the superstitions and the busi- 
ness interests of the natives of Siberia, and was only 
able to collect small herds at different places. The 
Siberians depend largely for sustenance upon bartering 
the products of the reindeer. They are afraid that they 



35^ HERDING. 

will be cut off from this if the Alaskans have reindeer, 
too. Beside that, the people never use money, so that 
it was necessary for the agent to be provided with the 
various things which the natives were glad to get in 
exchange. 

The richest native of the village of Indian Point, 
Siberia, does $100,000 worth of business every year 
without usingf a single coin, or a sino-le bank-note, nor 
are any books kept. He can neither read nor write, 
nor can any of those belonging to him. 

The reindeer, with their feet tied together, are loaded 
into small boats on the Siberian side and carried to the 
schooners, which convey them across to the Teller Sta- 
tion at Port Clarence. The herders drive the deer which 
are already on the Alaskan shore down to the beach, 
and when the men in the boats reach shallow water, the} 
turn their load of reindeer out into the water and let- 
them swim to shore themselves — which they readily do 
when they see the other reindeer there. 

The herding of the reindeer imposes a nomadic life 
those who attempt it, as the herds constantly change 
their position in search of fresh food. During the first 
year or so in the vicinity of the Teller Station the herd- 
ers slept in single canvas tents during the entire winter, 
and they suffered great hardships, as may well be imag- 
ined. Now they build log huts wherever it is possible. 

At the landing station sledges and harness are made, 
the latter being simply made, and may be put on and 
secured by two motions, touching the deer as little as: 
possible. 



BREAKING WILD REINDEER. 361 

About a year ago 1 30 deer were driven from the cen- 
tral station to Golovin Bay. Mr. N. O. Hultburg, the 
missionary there, writes : " At first the herd was kept 
five or six miles north of the station, where there was 
moss in abundance. As we had a number of steers my 
thought fell on how to get them trained. I ordered the 
boys to work with the deer each day, but it proved to 
be too hard work for them, as they are all very lazy. I 
then ordered the herd to be moved further off. So it 
was moved to about thirty miles northwest of the sta- 
tion. Each of the boys then had to go home once a 
week for his own provisions, and if he came with an old 
deer (one that had been trained before) he had to go 
back again with an empty sled. In this way we broke 
eleven new deer before spring." 

Mr. G. T. Howard, of the St. James Episcopal Mis- 
sion, who accompanied Mr. Hultberg and the others 
when they took the herd to Golovin Bay, writes of his 
experience in reindeer driving as follows : 

"With many misgivings I finally perched myself on 
top of the loaded sled behind the deer which I was to 
drive. At first there was no trouble, but as soon as I 
[attempted to guide the deer my efforts were treated with 
contempt. No matter how hard nor how often I pulled 
on the line, or longee, as the Laps call it, he paid no 
attention to it, except by occasionally coming to a full 
stop and turning round to look at me in a manner that 
made me feel rather uncomfortable — for the front hoofs 
of the deer are formidable weapons that can be used 
with remarkable rapidity — but he made no hostile 



362 QUALITIES OF REINDEER. 

demonstration, and, after trying to stare me out of 
countenance for a moment would suddenly wheel around, I 
and with a bound that would almost land me on my head: 
behind the sled would be off." 

Mr. Howard was finally reduced to the expedient of 
tying his deer behind another sledge, after which matters 
went very smoothly. That method is often adopted, and I 
enables one man to drive many sledges of deer at the 
same time. When there is a steep hill to descend the 
deer is taken to the back of the sledge, to which he is 1 
tied by the longee, braces his feet, and really pulls back- 
ward. The descent is very rapid, and as sled and deer 
fly along they are almost obscured by the whirling 
snow. 

A herd of deer can be very easily driven. They bunch 
together like sheep, and one man and a dog can easily, 
handle a large herd. 

In appearance they are almost the same as the Amer- 
ican caribou. Both male and female have large branch- 
ing horns. They can stand almost any degree of cold, 
and have the domestic instinct to a remarkable degree. 
They are not able to carry very heavy loads on their; 
backs, but in summer often carry women, children, or; 
household effects in this way. They can pull as much as; 
300 pounds — though a limit of 190 or 200 pounds is: 
generally made — at a rate of nine or ten miles an hour 
for ten hours without fatigue. 

M. N. Bruci, who was in charge of the Teller Station 
when it was first put in operation, speaks as follows 
about the hide of the reindeer : 



REINDEER SKINS. 3^3 

"The color of the fur of the reindeer is varied. Per- 
haps the most common is the seal-brown, and when free 
from other shades is decidedly rich in appearance. The 
fur, for such it may properly be called, after it has taken 
on its summer coat, is soft and glossy, and about the 
length of that of the fur-seal. When taken at this season, 
if properly dressed, it sheds very little. The skin is soft 
and pliable, and but little thicker than that of the fur-seal. 
The reindeer skin was at one time the only one used by 
the natives for their clothing, tents, and everything else, 
but now the seal and ground squirrel skins play an 
important part. Reindeer skins have become a matter 
of luxury with the natives, and only those who deny 
themselves other things that they need for their comfort 
wear reindeer clothing. In the country about Kotzebue 
Sound occasionally a skin is secured from a wild rein- 
deer, but is so rare that it assumes somewhat the nature 
of a curiosity. Thus it will be seen that, practically, all 
the reindeer skins used by the Alaskan Eskimo come 
from Siberia." 

Lapland, with 400,000 reindeer, supplies the grocery 
stores of Northern Europe with smoked reindeer hams 
at 10 cents a pound ; with smoked tongues at 10 cents 
each ; with dried hides at from $1.25 to $1.75 each ; with 
tanned hides at from $2 to $3 each, and with 23,000 
carcasses to the butcher-shops, in addition to what is 
consumed by the Laps themselves. Fresh reindeer 
meat is considered a great delicacy, and Russia exports 
it frozen in carloads to Germany. The tanned skins and 
hair are of great value commercially, and the best glue 



364 



A GREAT INDUSTRY. 



made to-day comes from reindeer horns. On the samet 
basis, Alaska with its capacity for 9,000,000 head oil 
reindeer, could supply the markets of America withi 
500,000 carcasses annually, tons of hams and tongues,; 
and the finest of leather. There is on the face of it a;j 
chance for the reindeer forming the basis of a great 
industry in the not far distant future. 




-^,. 




CHAPTER XVIII. 

THE GOLD FINDS OF HISTORY. 

Gold in the days of Abraham — Solomon's expeditions to Ophir — Edomites as 
Argonauts — Cortez in Mexico and Pizarro in Peru — Early attempts by the 
English to find gold in America — North Carolina an "Eldorado" — The 
Georgian "intrusion" — The days of the Forty-niners — John Marshall and his 
end — Australian and Klondike nuggets compared — The Frazer River craze — The 
" Kaffer circus" — South African mines capitalized at $1,500,000,000 — Four 
hundred years of gold digging — The gold kings of the world. 

C^ENTURIES upon centuries have come and gone 
s since the stories of fabulous gold finds first fired 
the hearts and imaginations of men. Our records proba- 
bly do not go back far enough to include the earliest of 
these. 

That there were such epochs of gold discovery in 
ancient history it is impossible to doubt, though trans- 
portation was so difficult in those days that rushes of 
gold seekers to the diggings must have been limited. It 
is hardly to be supposed that the vast quantities of gold 
which were in existence in Judea, at Babylon, in India, in 
Persia, and in Egypt were gradually accumulated by the 
working of lean sands ; the bulk must have been the 
yield of discoveries of rich deposits. Gold figures as an 
article of exchange and merchandise as far back as the 
time of Abraham, and when Solomon came to the throne 
he fairly plastered the temple with gold. 

Nor could it have been rare in other parts of Asia. 
At Babylon, where, in the time of Belshazzar, they had 

(367) 



768 OPHIR THE FIRST ELDORADO. 

gods of gold, and gold vessels for every guest of the 
king to drink out of; or in Persia, where the king had 
beds of gold and goblets of gold ; or in Hindostan, where 
the king sat on a throne of gold, and Nadir Shah took 
fifty millions of treasure from the single city of Delhi. 
It was safe to infer that before these great masses of gold 
were gathered together there must have been startling 
discoveries of gold deposits somewhere, causing rushes 
of gold seekers to the new camps, just like the present 
rush to Klondike ; and, considering the undeveloped con- 
dition of the mining industry at that time, it may also be 
inferred that the gold found was always alluvial. Where 
it was found we have no means of knowing. There are 
no records of gold discoveries in the ancient books. 

Ophir is the first "El Dorado" of which we have any 
record, and this includes little but the bare fact that it 
was a gold-producing country. There are no data by 
which it may be even approximately located. 

That Solomon received the tip about the riches of 
Ophir before the diggings were worked out is well 
attested by biblical records. He was in the habit of 
receiving gold from other sources. The King of Tyre 
sent him 120 talents, the equivalent. of about $250,000; 
and his friend, the Queen of Sheba, gave him about 
$200,000 at the time he was fixing up the temple at 
Jerusalem. He was not satisfied with this, and sent 
frequent expeditions to Ophir. The ships were sent out 
from ports on the Red Sea, and it is easy to imagine that 
desire to accompany them was fully as strong among the 
Edomites in those early days as is the present-day anxiety 



SPANISH GOLD. o£g 

on the part of thousands of people to be off for the Klon- 
dike and its hidden treasures. Solomon obtained about 
$500,000 from the Ophir mines. 

The first rush of gold seekers to a land of promise, of 
which we have authentic historical record, took place 
from Spain to the countries discovered by Columbus. 
On the islands he visited and those portions of the con- 
tinent on which he landed there are and were then no 
gold mines. But the natives he met wore ornaments of 
gold obtained mostly from South America, and Cortez 
found a good deal of it, though neither he nor his people 
undertook to mine. When Montezuma surrendered the 
treasure in gold which fell to the share of the conquerors 
it amounted to 162,000 pieces of eight, equivalent, accord- 
ing to Mr. Prescott, to $6,300,000, a small sum if con- 
trasted with the yield of modern mining camps, but more, 
perhaps, than the contents of the coffers of any European 
monarch of that day, and quite enough to disturb values 
throughout the world. 

It was less than the sum secured a few years later by 
Pizarro in Peru. At Cuzco he divided among his men 
580,200 pieces of eight, and the ineffectual ransom of 
Adahualpa cost the unfortunate Inca a sum exceeding 
$15,000,000 of our money. The Spanish army in Peru 
received and sent home four times as much as the fol- 
lowers of Cortez sent from Mexico. It is diverting to 
observe how the ill-gotten gains operated precisely as 
the discovery of a bonanza does in a mining camp. The 
chronicler says: "Every article rose in value. A quire 
of paper sold for ten pieces of eight, a bottle of wine 



270 EARLY EXPECTATIONS. 

for sixty, a sword for forty or fifty, a cloak for a hundred, 
a pair of shoes for thirty or forty, and a horse for twenty- 
five hundred." A piece of eight was equivalent to an 
ounce of gold. 

It will be noted that none of the gold obtained by 
Pizarro and Cortez and their followers was obtained 
directly from the mines. Numerous expeditions were 
undertaken during the first century of the New World's 
history for the avowed object of finding the precious 
metal, and yet remarkable as it may seem, gold was not 
discovered within the boundaries of the present United 
States, nor ever anywhere north of the Rio Grande, until 
300 years after Columbus had finished his earthly labors. 
The lust for gold drove hundreds of adventurers across 
the Atlantic to brave the dangers of the unknown wilds 
in their attempts to find the land of gold, the Eldorado 
of which the Indians had told, and of which the most 
romantic tales were being circulated in Europe. The 
adventurers were of all the seafaring nations of the civil- 
ized world. The Spaniards, through the massacring of 
the nations and the plundering of their temples, proved 
successful, while the English, on the other hand, were 
unsuccessful throughout. 

Sir Walter Raleigh's expeditions were dismal failures. 
He suffered with his life for his ill-fortune. The El- 
dorado, which had been sought in South America, had 
not been found. The attention of adventurers was now 
turned to the opposite direction, and the imaginary land 
of gold was now placed in the north of America. This 
idea became so strong that, in 1576, Martin Frobisher 



SMITH'S REPORTS. -2 7 1 

set out from England for the Northwest, seeking- a pas- 
sage to India north of Hudson's Strait. He came to an 
island which he named Meta Incognita, and on his return 
took with him a stone which the English refiners declared 
to contain gold. London was greatly excited. But when 
a second expedition returned and brought with it a lot 
of valueless dirt, the disappointment set the populace 
wild with rage. But the public was ready to be imposed 
upon again. As early as 1605 Captain John Smith heard 
from the Indians reports of rich gold mines in Virginia. 
The same statements were repeated by other explorers 
after him, and soon adventurers flocked to the new set- 
tlements on the Virginia coast. The second lot of emi- 
grants to Jamestown consisted chiefly of vagabond gentle- 
men and goldsmiths, who, in spite of the remonstrances 
of Smith, believed they had discovered grains of gold in 
the glittering earth. There was now nothing done but 
digging for gold, washing gold, refining gold. Newport, 
the commander, believed himself immeasurably rich as 
he embarked for England with a freight of worthless 
earth. 

Gradually the hope of ever finding Eldorado vanished, 
and for 200 years the golden phantom did not appear. 
Not till this century were the gold treasures of North 
America taken from the bosom of the earth. They were 
found primarily, as the result of accident, not of mad, 
thoughtless quest. 

It was in the second year of this century, when the 
report spread as rapidly as was possible in those early 
days, through the Eastern States, that gold, real gold, 



372 STORY OF JOHN REED. 

had been discovered in North Carolina. At first people 
shook their heads and doubted the news. Had not the 
discoverers of the country ransacked every nook and 
corner for the precious metal and not found as much as 
an ounce? But the report was soon verified, and before 
long, nuggets of bright gold reached the larger towns and 
were seen and wondered at by the curious people. With 
the gold came the story of the discovery, and the wise- 
acres nodded their heads and said : " How simple." 
And when it became known that the owner of the gold 
mine was one of those Hessians who had fought against 
the patriots the gossip-mongers remarked, with a sneer 
of disgust: "The ignorant Dutchman." This is the 
story which was soon told all over the land. 

John Reed, one of the unfortunates whom the Elector 
of Hesse had pressed into service to fight for the Eng- 
lish in America, had, after the war, settled on a farm in 
Cabarrus County, North Carolina, where the German 
element predominated. He was said to be grossly ignor- 
ant, having been but a poor peasant boy when forcibly 
transported to America. One sunny summer day, in the 
year 1799, Conrad Reed, John's twelve-year-old son, 
accompanied by a sister and a younger brother, went 
to a small stream, called Meadow Creek, for the purpose' 
of shooting fish with bow and arrow, as the Indians were 
wont to do. While bending over the water's brink, Con- 
rad spied a yellow substance glistening in the creek. He 
waded into the water, picked it up, and found it to be 
some kind of metal. Though unconscious of its nature 
and value, but with the curiosity of a child, the youngster 



THE JEWELER'S LUCK. ,-- 

carried his find home and showed it to his father, who 
had just returned from church. The parent examined 
the piece of metal, but was as ignorant as to its character 
as the boy. The next time he brought vegetables to 
market at Concord, he took the yellow stone, which was 
about the size of a small smoothing iron, with him to 
town and showed it to William Atkinson, a silversmith. 
This worthy, whose experience seems to have been sadly 
limited, knew not what to call it. So Reed, who unknow- 
ingly seems to have suspected the value of his son's 
find, carried the piece of metal home again. For three 
years it lay on the floor of the farmhouse, used for the 
purpose of keeping the door from shutting. In the year 
1802 the old farmer had occasion to go to market at 
Fayetteville. He took the piece of metal with him and 
showed it to a jeweler. The latter immediately recog- 
nized it as gold, and asked Reed to leave it with him, 
saying that he would flux it. 

The old farmer did accordingly. On his next visit to 
town the jeweler showed him a large bar of gold, six or 
eight inches long, and asked him at what price he would 
let him have it. Reed, not knowing the value of gold, 
but still desirous of profiting as much as possible by his 
son's find, named what he thought a " big price," namely, 
$3.50. The jeweler paid him the price named and 
chuckled over his bargain. After returning home, Reed 
looked over the ground where the gold had been picked 
up and found nuggets of the precious metal all along the 
brink of the creek. He associated with himself three of 
his neighbors, also Germans, Frederick Kisor (Kaiser), 



yjM NORTH CAROLINA GOLD. 

James Love (Loew), and Martin Phifer (Pfeifer), and in 
the year 1803 they found a piece of gold that weighed 
twenty-eight pounds. Numerous large nuggets of the 
metal were found thereafter, of various sizes and values. 
The whole surface of the ground along" the creek's bank 
for nearly a mile was rich in gold. In 1831 quartz veins 
were discovered which yielded large quantities of gold. 
From 1803 to 1835, 115 pounds of gold were found on 
one spot. In 1840 the output of the gold mines in Car- 
rabus County, North Carolina, was estimated at $3,500. 
Reed profited by his discoveries and died about the year 
1848 a wealthy man. 

As might have been expected, the discovery of gold 
excited so much attention that exploration was begun 
extensively. The gold was traced southward as far as 
the borders of the Cherokee territory in Northern 
Georgia. In Rowan County, North Carolina, mining 
operations were commenced at Gold Hill in September, 
1842. Some very rich veins were opened. From 
January, 1843, to July, 1851, gold to the value of 
$801,665 was found at this spot. 

For awhile, as has always been the case during the 
prevalence of gold fever, gold was discovered every- 
where. Reports of rich finds came from South Carolina, 
Georgia, Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, Lower Canada, and 
other parts of the continent. In Georgia, especially, 
great excitement prevailed for some time. The richest 
finds were reported from the Cherokee Reservation. 
Prospectors began to encroach on the domain of the red 



THE "INTRUSION." --,, 

men. Protests naturally followed, and Georgia sent a 
large police force to keep back the invaders, but it was 
of little avail. Reckless, dissipated men from all quarters 
of the country flocked in, prowled about the woods, set 
up log huts and shanty groceries on all the streams, and 
even the Federal troops were powerless to keep the law- 
less hordes west of the Chestatee. These days are known 
as the period of the " Intrusion " — one of the two dates 
from which the mountaineers reckon all events, the other 
being " the late war." Finding that no protection of the 
Indians by police measures was feasible, the State in 
1830 adopted the Indians, reservation and all, and consti- 
tuted the region a county. Then the mineral lands were 
divided up into forty-acre lots, and put up at lottery by 
the State. It soon came to be found here, as elsewhere, 
that gold was not to be picked up in lumps every day. 
The worthless, lazy and dissolute majority of the early 
horde of invaders gradually drifted away, while only 
the small minority of newcomers remained. The popu- 
lation, like the dirt, was slowly panned out, and the cur- 
rent of events carried the dross away. 

DISCOVERED IN GEORGIA. 

In Habersham County, Georgia, gold was discovered 
in 1 83 1 by a man named Wilpero, who, observing the 
resemblance of the surface and of the foliage and the 
streams of the region with the gold section of North 
Carolina, dug for the precious metal and found it in con- 
siderable quantities. 

In Virginia gold was mined for many years. The 



378 CALIFORNIA. 

largest masses of the metal were found in or near rivulets 
or runs of water. On a brook at the Whitehall Mine 
gold of the value of $10,000 was found in the course of a 
few days in a space of about twenty feet square. 

The gold fever in the South had almost died out, when 
from the farthest quarter of the United States, the 
recently acquired California, came the news of gold finds 
far more remarkable and productive than those heretofore 
made. Not that gold was new to California. For three 
centuries there had been wild talk about fabulous mineral 
wealth in the region of the Sierras. In the '20's and '30's 
of this century small nuggets of gold had been repeatedly 
obtained from the Indians. One day a laborer in the em- 
ploy of the Russian-American Company in California 
came to the commandant with the story that he had seen 
gold up the bed of a stream and advised that a party be 
sent to examine it. The man was told to mind his own 
business. ' Although such rumors of the existence of gold 
in California had occasionally been heard, still they had 
never been verified or traced to any reliable source, and 
they were regarded as we now regard the fabulous stories 
of the golden sands of Gold Lake or those of Silver 
Planches, which are said to exist in the inaccessible 
deserts of Arizona. 

At first there was little excitement, due doubtless to a 
lack of definite news. But when the gold from the new 
Eldorado began pouring into Valparaiso, Panama and 
New York, in the latter part of the winter of 1848-49, an 
end was put to all doubts, and in the spring there was a 
rush of peaceful emigration such as the world had never 



RUSH OF "49-" 379 

seen. In 1849 25,000 — according to one authority, 
50,000 — immigrants went by land, and 23,000 by sea from 
the regions east of the Rocky Mountains, and by sea per- 
haps 40,000 from other parts of the world, adding twelve- 
fold to the population and fiftyfold to the productive 
capacity of the Territory. 

By January, 1849, ninety vessels, carrying 8,000 pas- 
sengers, had sailed from various ports, bound for San 
Francisco, and seventy more were advertised to sail. 
Pulpits resounded with warnings against riches as the 
source of all evil, but the preachers, when they could, took 
ship for the land of gold like other people. Early in 1849 
the population of San Francisco swelled from 2,000 to 
14,000. Four hundred sailing vessels were abandoned 
by their crews at their anchorage in the bay. Labor was 
fioa day. In that year (1849) 549 vessels entered the 
Golden Gate. In the same year the yield of the mines 
was probably not less than $18,000,000. The present 
annual yield is about $72,000,000, and in the years since 
the California fields were opened about a billion and a 
half dollars have been taken out. 

Everybody knows that gold was first discovered in 
California by James W. Marshall, a native of New Jersey, 
who built a mill in the Sacramento Valley on property 
owned by John A. Sutter. It was entirely by accident 
that he discovered the gold, and became sponsor for the 
wild days of the " Forty-niners." The saw-mill at Coloma 
was built and managed by this Jerseyman, and for four 
months he worked with a °fan£ of men until the race had 
been dug and the dam made. On the morning of Mon- 



380 MARSHALL'S FIND. 

day, January 24, 1848, Marshall was walking in the tail- 
race, when the rush of water was carrying away the loose 
dirt and gravel, and saw on its rotten granite bed-rock 
some yellow particles, and picked up several of them. 
The largest were about the size of grains of wheat. 
They were smooth, bright, and in color much like brass. 
He thought they were gold, and went to the mill, where 
he told the men that he had found a gold mine. 

At the time he was laughed at, and no importance at- 
tached to his statement. But Marshall hammered his 
new metal, tried it in the kitchen fire, and was the more 
convinced that he had found gold. Next morning he 
picked up more specimens in the tail-race, put a spoonful 
in the crown of his slouch hat, and showed the find again 
at the mill. Led by Marshall, the laborers all hastened 
down to the mill-race, and soon were absorbed in picking 
from the streams and crevices of the rock the precious 
yellow metal. 

On the evening of February 2, 1848, Marshall rode 
into the fort, his horse foaming and spattered with mud. 
Taking Sutter aside he showed him about half a thim- 
bleful of yellow grains of metal. Sutter applied aqua- 
fortis and established the fact that the metal was solid 
gold. 

The first record of the discovery, and the only one made 
on the day of its occurrence, was in the diary of Henry 
W. Bigler, one of the mill hands. He wrote January 
24th: "This day some kind of metal was found in the 
tail-race that looks like goald." 

Although Sutter tried to keep the discovery of gold 



MARSHALL'S TROUBLES. ,g. 

a secret until he could get in his harvest, it was impos- 
sible, and, as Parton says: "Sutter's harvest was never 
gathered. His oxen, hogs and sheep were stolen by- 
hungry men and devoured. No hands could be procured 
to run the mill. His lands were squatted on and dug 
over, and he wasted his remaining substance in fruitless 
litigations to recover them. To carry on the legal war- 
fare, he was compelled to sacrifice or mortgage the parts 
of his estates not seized by the gold diggers, until, little 
by little, his magnificent property melted away, leaving 
him all but destitute. For one item he paid, in ten years, 
for counsel fees and legal expenses, $125,000." The 
Legislature of California granted him a pension of $250 
a month. In 1864 his homestead was burned, and in 
1873 he removed to Lititz, Pa. He died in Washington, 
D. C, June 17, 1880, a poor man. 

Marshall, the discoverer of gold, did not fare more pros- 
perously. His property and stock were seized, his land 
was divided into town lots, and he became reduced to ex- 
treme poverty. His discovery, which in one year alone 
resulted in a product of $65,000,000 and for seventeen 
years brought on an average of $25,600,000, netted him 
neither fame nor profit. 

Marshall's troubles began with the very first stampede 
of gold-seekers. He cursed Mrs. Wimmer, his cook, who 
first spread the news of his find, and he declared he would 
have the law protect his rights. While his employes 
joined in digging and washing gold, Marshall swore and 
growled. For a few months he made every man on the 
scene pay him a dollar for his discovery. But when the 



~g, DISAPPOINTMENT. 

throngs increased he seldom got a dollar, and then only 
from a good-natured m an. He claimed that he and 
Sutter owned the land on which the miners came and got 
their gold. Of course, there was justice in the assertion 
that the miners had trespassed upon Sutter's and Mar- 
shall's acres, but the lawless, wild gold seekers cared 
precious little for legal rights in those days, and there was 
neither United States nor Mexican law in California from 
some time in 1847 until the summer of 1850, when the 
Territory began to get ready for admission as a State. 
Marshall became disliked for his belligerency, and he was 
in continual disputes and quarreling. Several times he 
barely escaped serious physical punishment from a camp 
of reckless, intoxicated miners whom he had threatened 
with legal processes because of their encroachments on 
his land. He never did any mining himself, for he claimed 
he owned all the gold that had been taken out at Coloma, 
and he would some day have the courts give him back 
all the riches that had been stolen from him. 

He was a spiritualist, and had visions and messages 
from the spirit land that told him what to do. He went 
often to 'Frisco and Sacramento. By 1851 he became 
reconciled to his fate, and abandoned all claims to the 
mining property on his lands. In 1857 he bought a plot 
of land at Coloma, near the site of his saw-mill. There 
he planted a vineyard. He did odd jobs about the town 
and made wine. He became a hard drinker and every- 
one knew him as a chronic growler. In 1869 he started 
out to lecture on "How I Found Gold in California." 
He was very poor, and for a few nights he did a good 



DIED IN POVERTY. ,gr 

business. Then he went to Stockton, and there his love 
for whiskey overcame him, and he fell by the way. In 
1872 the Legislature of California granted him a pension 
of $200 a month for two years. It was subsequently re- 
newed for seven years at $100 a month. He spent 
almost every dollar of it in saloons, and on a lot of 
parasites. That was why the first pension was cut down 
one-half. He died alone in a ramshackle, desolate cabin 
in the little hamlet of Kelsey, in El Dorado County, on 
August 9, 1885. He had been dead a day before his 
remains were found. 

These discoveries and the rush of population to Cali- 
fornia gave rise to lively times. Lots in San Francisco 
were said to be worth gold coin enough to carpet them. 
Speculation ran wild. All forms of gambling were recog- 
nized as legitimate business, while adventurers and crimi- 
nals flocked in. Society became chaotic, and at length 
self-preservation required the organization of the cele- 
brated " vigilance committees " to enforce order. 

Gold mining was neither novel nor rare, but the unex- 
ampled combination of wonderful richness, highly favor- 
able geographical conditions, and great freedom in the 
political institutions of California led to such a rush of 
people and such an immense production of gold, that the 
whole world was shaken, The older placers of Brazil and 
Siberia, and the later ones of Australia and South Africa, 
had a much smaller influence on general commerce and 
manufactures. The discovery of these mines was an 
American achievement. It was the result of an American 
conquest from Mexico and of preparation for American 



,g£ AUSTRALIA. 

immigrants. They were Americans, as were the first 
miners, who subsequently invented the sluice and the hy- 
draulic process of placer washing, and who planned and 
constructed the great ditches, flumes and dams that gave 
a distinctive character to the placer mining of California. 
Marshall's find did not limit its great influences to our 
continent. It profoundly agitated all the countries of the 
world, and threw a belt of steam around the globe. It 
educated Harereaves, and taught him where to find and 
how to open up the gold deposits of Australia. It built 
the Panama road. It opened Japan to the traffic of 
Christendom. Directly and indirectly, it added nearly 
four billions of dollars to the stock of the precious metals, 
and by giving the distinction of this vast scene to Eng- 
lish-speaking nations added much to their great industrial 
and intellectual influence. 

Before three years elapsed the discoveries in California 
were duplicated in Australia. Some years before Sir 
Roderick Murchison had predicted that gold would be 
found in the quartz, and in 185 1 Hargreaves, who had 
been at the diggings in California, looked for it in the 
Bathurst of New South Wales, and found what he was 
looking for. His discovery was at first received with 
incredulity, but when Dr. Kerr found on the Turon a 
lump of gold worth $21,000, and a nugget was taken to 
Sydney which sold for $6,200, there could be no question 
of the facts. 

It is interesting in this connection to know something 
of the size of the Klondike nuggets, although large 
nuggets are not necessarily the accompaniment of rich 



RICES JUMP. ,g g 

fields. There were four nuggets of the size of duck 
eggs, and a dozen as large as walnuts, in the gold brought 
down this summer from Alaska. The bie ones are 
worth about $375 each, and the small ones about $140. 
There are many thousands of golden bits of the size of 
watermelon seeds that are worth $1 each, and hundreds 
of the size of common gravel-stones. 

After the news of the Australian discoveries had been 
circulated workmen of all classes deserted their callings 
to hunt for gold, and they were so successful that in the 
fall of 1 85 1 the average earnings of prospectors rose to 
$5 a day. Simultaneously, all articles of commerce ad- 
vanced ; wheat quadrupled in value ; potatoes rose from 
7 shillings to 21 shillings a hundred weight; and freight 
from Sydney to the mines from $12 to $150 a ton. When 
the news reached Europe thousands of adventurers em- 
barked for Australia, declaring that its treasures cast 
into the shade those of California. 

Melbourne was jealous of Sydney, and a generous 
reward was offered for the discovery of a gold field within 
the province of Victoria. The result was the discovery, 
in August, 1851, of the diggings of Ballarat. Ten thou- 
sand adventurers flocked to the spot, which maintained its 
reputation as the greatest gold camp in the world till 
Mount Alexander and Bendigo Creek were discovered. 
Before New Year's it was said that there were 50,000 
miners at Bendigo, and Melbourne was depopulated. 
Flour, which was worth $100 a ton at the seaboard, was 
in demand at $1,000 a ton at the mines ; oats rose eight- 
fold ; mining tools sold for anything the dealers chose to 



oqo BIG GOLD MINES. 

ask. In that winter it was said that an average of 15,000 
adventurers arrived each month at Melbourne, and car- 
penters and masons were getting $10 a day. 

The finder of one of the richest veins was a man who 
had been prospecting in the bush for a long time without 
success, and was returning to Perth disconsolate. One 
night on his way he encamped in a wilderness, when his 
horse got restless toward morning and plunged and 
kicked about. The man went out to quiet the animal, 
when he knocked his foot against what he took to be a 
big stone, but which, on examination, he found to be a 
huge and almost solid mass of pure gold. To "peg" 
out his claim did not take long, and in a month six men, 
working with the roughest tools, took $250,000 worth 
of gold. 

The " Hannans Broomhill " and the " Great Boulder," 
in the Hannans field of the West Australian district, are 
the two biggest gold mines the world is likely to see. It 
is no question of stock exchange when it comes to digging 
out day by day ore which seems to consist almost entirely 
of gold. In the storehouse of the Hannans Broomhill 
there has been at one time between twenty and thirty 
tons of gold. 

So this gold find, brought about entirely by accident, 
proved to be no flash in the pan. 

The yield has swelled month by month and year by 
year, until, in 1856, the export from Melbourne alone, 
without taking Sydney into account, was over $60,000,000. 
In the same year the mint at Sydney received $7,500,000 



BIG GOLD MINES. ^ QI 

in gold from the mines and New Zealand produced 
$10,000,000. 

In Australia's heyday, just as the yield of the California 
placers had declined to such a degree that some of the 
most famous diggings were given over to Chinamen. 
Rumors, which gradually gathered strength, reached San 
Francisco that gold had been discovered in the bed of the 
Fraser River. The first finds were made in 1856; it 
was not until the spring of 1858 that Fraser River gold 
began to appear at the money-changers' establishments on 
Montgomery Street. An exodus set in for Victoria, just 
such a one as there is now for Juneau. By June, 1858, 
10,000 miners were at work between Langley and the 
forks of the river, and every bar for 140 miles of the 
Fraser's course, and along the Thompson, was being 
prospected. Two flourishing towns, Yale and Hope, 
sprang up on the river banks, and before snow fell 20,000 
adventurers are said to have left California for the new 
camps. Of these, the great bulk endured untold hard- 
ships, and found no gold. They returned to San Fran- 
cisco discouraged and penniless, and denounced Fraser 
River as a humbug, just as some of the unlucky Yukon 
adventurers may possibly be denouncing the Klondike 
next year. 

But Fraser River was a real find, which added, in the 
course of twenty-odd years, more than twice as much 
gold to the world's supply as Spain had obtained from 
the Americas in the same space of time. Estimates of 
the yield of 1858 vary so widely that it is difficult to 
ascertain the truth. Good, the Canadian Minister of 



-7Q2 CARIBOO MOUNTAIN COUNTRY. 

Mines, reckoned that the output of that year was not over 
$500,000, but McDonald, figuring from the reports of 
bankers and express companies, set it down at $2,1 50,000. 
This was chiefly scale gold, comminuted by hammering 
between boulders into fine flat scales, and mixed with 
considerable flour gold. The yield increased in 1859 and 
again in i860 ; for the three years the total output was 
probably something like $6,000,000 or $7,000,000. It did 
not convulse trade or set the world crazy, as the discov- 
eries in California and Australia had done, because the 
discouraging reports set afloat by returning miners in 
1858 cooled popular ardor, and threw a bucket of cold 
water on the spirits of the adventurous. 

The furore was rekindled in 1861 by fresh discoveries 
in the Cariboo Mountain country, at Quesnel Forks dig- 
gings, and at the head-waters of the Fraser and Thompson 
rivers. Here the gold found in the streams was coarse, 
and the mountains generally consisted of slates, which, 
in lower latitudes, had been found to be auriferous. The 
best fields for mining were the beds of buried rivers 
below the level of the modern streams, as in the Sierra 
counties of California. In the deposit on the beds of 
these prehistoric rivers were found richly concentrated 
gold leads, which were reached by shafts and levels. It 
was from these that the chief wealth of the Cariboo was 
extracted. In 1861 $2,000,000 of gold was shipped ; as 
much more in 1862 ; an increased quantity in 1863; and 
though after that year the excitement subsided, the influx 
of gold seekers ceased, and many miners abandoned the 
country. Mr. Bancroft estimates the total yield of the 



RUSSIA GOIvD FIELDS. 393 

region in twenty years at somewhere between $30,000,- 
000 and $40,000,000. It will average $4,000,000 a year 
to-day. 

But liberal as the output of Cariboo was, it created no 
stir throughout the world, and from 1861 to 1881 the 
mining population only averaged about 1,500. In the 
beeinninof it witnessed the inflation usual in new mining 
camps ; miners got $10 and $12 a day, and flour was $1 
a pound; but afterward, though the actual yield was 
larger than it had been in the early days, and Antler and 
William Creeks were pouring out the precious metal by 
the pound, things settled down to a steady, business- 
like basis. 

Before the boom of Fraser River another mining find 
had aroused the attention of financiers, and would have 
given rise to a boom if it had occurred anywhere but in 
Russia. Russia has always been a gold producer. From 
time immemorial the debris of the talcose schists on the 
eastern slopes of the Ural, where they are intersected by 
quartz veins, have been washed for gold with success. 
In 1830 the gravel of the rivers in Siberia was found to 
carry considerable gold in spots. The government laid 
hands on the most fruitful diggings. Gold was obtained 
from Meningsk, and from the borders of the Altai ; from 
Nerchinsk, on the Oleqma, and from several streams 
emptying into the Amoor. But the richest diggings were 
on the great river of Siberia, the Yenisei, which is 2,500 
miles long, and empties into the Kara Sea. 

Nerchinsk has lately been yielding $2,000,000 a year 
or more, and the Yenisei as much as $10,000,000. No 



iq» KAFFER CIRCUS. 

excitement marked the discovery. In Russia popular 
movements are discouraged. There has never been any 
rush to the diggings. Residents on the river are allowed 
to prospect for gold, but the most productive spots are 
exploited for the State. There is a good deal of similarity 
between the gold region of Siberia and the gold region 
of Alaska. The ground is water-soaked, and has been 
frozen to a depth of four or five feet from time imme- 
morial. During - the brief summer the fierce heat thaws 
out the surface, but does not strike deep enough to affect 
the substratum of frozen earth. On the Yenisei the 
alluvium is washed for gold with hot water, and to heat 
the water whole forests are cut down and used as fire- 
wood. It often happens that fine flakes of gold in the 
washer become studded with needles of ice and are car- 
ried off" in the stream. It is evident that with such a 
process nothing but coarse gold can be saved. 

The most sensational feature of the South African gold 
craze was and is the delirious stock jobbing which it gave 
rise to. This has been dubbed the " Kaffer Circus," and 
if circus it was, Barney Barnato, the suicide, was head 
ringmaster. African gold is no novelty, for the Portuguese 
brought back gold dust and negro slaves from Cape 
Bojador 450 years ago. But in 1867, when a band of 
Australian gold diggers went out and set up a small 
battery for crushing quartz on the Zambezi, the first 
serious attempt at gold mining was made since the days 
of the lost races, the ruins of whose great cities were 
discovered by Karl Mauch. 

The "craze," however, did not set in until 1883, when 



SHEBA MINKS. 39 5 

a Natal trader had picked up pieces of quartz along the 
Kaap River. The news spread, and the famous pioneer 
reef was discovered on the farm of Moodie, who sold out 
for a million dollars. Then the rush set in from other 
gold fields which had not panned out well, and the De 
Kaap " boom" set in. Some fifteen Natalians formed a 
syndicate to exploit this country on their own account, 
but after four months of fruitless toil the money was all 
gone. They were down on their luck, when, as they re- 
turned to camp on what was intended to be their last 
evening there, one, Edwin Bray, savagely dug his pick 
into the rock as they walked gloomily along. But with 
one swing there came a turn in the fortunes of the band, 
for he knocked off a bit of quartz so richly veined with 
gold as to betoken the existence of a wonderful " reef." 

From this start arose the Sheba Mine, which was 
capitalized within a year for a million and a half sterling 
and all the stock sold. This wonderful success led to the 
floating of a vast number of hopeless or bogus enter- 
prises, and the British public bit eagerly at fabulous 
prices. Yet, surrounded as it was, by a host of fraudu- 
lent imitators, the great Sheba Mine has continued as one 
of the most wonderfully productive mines in the world. 
Millions have been lost in swindling and impossible 
undertakings in the De Kaap fields, but the Sheba 
Mountain, or " Bray's Golden Hole," has proved a 
mountain of gold. 

It was one Sunday night in 1886 that the great "find" 
was made which laid the base of the prosperity of the 
Johannesburg-to-be. A farm servant went over to visit 



-g5 THE ROBINSON COMPANY. 

a friend at a neighboring farm, and as he walked home- 
ward in the evening knocked off a bit of rock, the ap- 
pearance of which led him to take it home to his em- 
ployer. It corresponded with what the "boss" had 
found in another part, and on following up both leads 
revealed what became famous as the Main Reef. 

A lot of the " conglomerate " was sent to Kimberly to 
be analyzed, and a thoughtful observer of the analysis 
came to the conclusion that there must be good stuff 
where that came from, so he dropped quietly into the 
Rand, as it is now called. Then he quietly acquired the 
Langlaate farm for a few thousands, which the people on 
the spot thought was sheer madness. But his name was 
J. B. Robinson, and he was soon known in the Kaffir 
circus and elsewhere as one of the gold kings of Africa. 
In a year or two he floated a company with a capital of 
450,000 pounds to acquire what had cost him about 
20,000 pounds. In five years this company turned out 
gold to the value of a million pounds, and paid dividends 
of 330,000 pounds. The Robinson Company, another 
formed a little later, in five years produced gold to the 
value of one and a half million pounds and paid 570,000 
pounds in dividends. With these discoveries and suc- 
cessful enterprises the name and fame of the " Rand " 
were established, and for years the district became the 
happy hunting ground of financiers and company pro- 
moters. 

The Rand, or Witwatersrand, is the topmost plateau 
of the Hio-h Veldt of the Transvaal, on whose summit is 
the gold city of Johannesburg. 







X. 



J 



si 



BARNEY BARNATO. ,grt 

In the later eighties and early nineties the principal 
feature of South African mining- was in the madness of 
the stock exchange; in fact, all Europe became inocu- 
lated with the disease, which at one time made Johannes- 
burg a marvel and a reproach. That disease was a 
craving for speculation in the shares of gold mining 
companies, whose markets were called the " Kaffir 
Circus." The fact that in 1895 South Africa was pro- 
ducing two and a half million ounces of gold per annum, 
at a gross profit of about three millions sterling, fired the 
imagination and stirred the cupidity of hundreds of thou- 
sands of people who had not taken the trouble to ask 
what it all meant. When the British public did go in for 
African ventures it went with a rush. 

The climax of madness was reached two years ago. A 
small handful of men, a few years ago, dropped into the 
Rand and acquired properties for, in the aggregate, less 
than a couple of million pounds, which in the space of 
eight years reached a realizable value of two hundred 
million pounds, or a billion dollars at the market quota- 
tions for shares. Some of these men became worth a 
hundred millions of dollars apiece, of whom Barnato was 
the king of speculators. It is a very curious history, 
quite without parallel in the records of human endeavor, 
this concentration of the whole gold-mining industry of 
South Africa, in companies of half a dozen cliques, each 
of which has its " Kino-." 

It is a contrast to the experience of Australia and 
California, where combined effort in the way of company 
working only came into operation when individual diggers 



4O0 ENORMOUS INFLATION. 

had creamed all the nuggets and surface gold and fallen 
upon evil times. In 1895, tne to P wave of the craze, the 
inflation was so great that the capitalized value of all the 
South African companies, was 300,000,000 pounds. 

There was a great set-back shortly after, but the infla- 
tion is still enormous, for most of the companies have not 
yet paid any dividends at all, and it is doubtful if the 
legitimate profits of all of them together this year exceed 
two and a half millions sterling. The latest estimate of 
the gold resources of the Witwatersrand is that if mining- 
can be carried on to a depth of 5000 feet something like 
700,000,000 pounds of gold should be obtained within the 
next fifty years at a cost of 500,000,000 pounds. This 
would leave a clear profit of 200,000,000 pounds in fifty 
years, on a capital of 150,000,000 pounds. This is little 
more than 2^ per cent., even supposing all the expecta- 
tions of deep-level mining are realized, although there is 
no experience to guide. The South African game does 
not look to be worth the candle unless you are snugly 
tucked away on the inside. 

All the gold mined in the world from the date of the 
discovery of America to the close of the fiscal year of 
1895 i s placed by the statisticians of the various govern- 
ments at $8,781,858,700. 

It is interesting to know that nearly half of this total for 
over four hundred years has been taken out of three 
countries in less than fifty years. Since the days of '49 
California and the contiguous gold fields have given up 
$2,035,416,000. Gold was discovered in Australia in 
1 85 1, in New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, 



MONEY MILLER. AOl 

Tasmania, Victoria, and Western Australia, and the total 
output to date is $1,655,713,000. 

Gold in the South African Republic has only been of 
importance since 1890, and the total at the end of the first 
six months of 1896 was a little less than $212,000,000. 

The precious metal is to-day being yielded at an annual 
rate of $36,000,000 in the United States, $35,500,000 in 
Australia, and $30,000,000 in South Africa. But little is 
ever heard of the enormous fortunes that must have been 
made in Australia. This is due to the fact that the prin- 
cipal mines are operated by syndicates of English capi- 
talists. 

The name that is pre-eminent in the history of Aus- 
tralian gold fields is that of " Money " Miller, who is said 
to have retired with a fortune of $25,000,000, not large 
enough to make him conspicuous should he live in 
California. 

The wealth of the South African Republic has been 
divided among fewer men. Barney Barnato is said to 
have been worth $200,000,000. Alfred Beit is the reputed 
owner of $ 1 00,000,000 ; Cecil Rhodes of $50,000,000 ; and 
the greatest of all is S. B. Robinson, who is supposed to 
command $250,000,000. 

The list of Americans who have become many times 
millionaires through gold mines is a long one. Fully one- 
half of the millions taken out of the mountains of 
the Pacific is divided among less than twenty men. The 
names of the more famous are part of the financial history 
of the world, and include : 

Leland Stanford $25,000,000 



402 



MONEY KINGS. 

James G. Fair , 25,000,000 

Charles Crocker Estate 22,000,000 

Peter Donahue 20,000,000 

J. B. Haggin 20,000,000 

Claus Spreckles 30,000,000 

John W. Mackay 10,000,000 

James G. Flood 10,000,000 

William S. O'Brien 10,000,000 

Sharon Estate 20,000,000 

Mark Hopkins *.... 21,000,000 

Lick Estate 10,000,000 

C. P. Huntington 35,000,000 

Charles McLaughlin 5,000,000 

Alex. Montgomery 5,000,000 

Dave T. Murphy 5,000,000 

Adolphus C. Whitcomb 5,000,000 

Thomas Blythe 5,000,000 

J. C. Wilmerding 5,000,000 

Walter S. Hobart 5,000,000 

Robert C. Johnston 5,000,000 



CHAPTER XIX. 

BONANZA KINGS. 

iome of the famous princes of the gold-mining world — From poverty to sudden 
riches — The miners' cabins changed for great palaces and luxurious living — 
Great fortunes easily acquired and rapidly thrown away — Nuggets of pure gold 
picked up by chance — The best-known cases of finding lumps of the pure yel- 
low treasure. 

THE gold fields of Alaska are still too young in the 
knowledge of man to have produced many of those 
nteresting types of humanity which we call "bonanza 
dngs," but to the name of Treadwell, the owner of the 
amous mine, and some others who have passed from 
)Overty to riches in a brief space of time, will probably 
ye added a long list of equally fortunate men. Some of 
hose who came down from the Klondike country on the 
' Portland " and other vessels during the past summer, 
wringing with them bags of yellow dust, have already 
aken long strides toward the enviable position of min- 
ng princes, and when they return again will probably be 
ible to spread before the world still further evidences of 
:heir claim to the title. 

One of the pioneers of the Alaska country who is 
ikely to be heard of before long as the possessor of a 
*reat fortune which came to him suddenly after years of 
■vandering and search is Captain John Healy, known to 
lorthern territory as " King of the Klondike." 

.405 



4Q 5 CAPTAIN JOHN HEALY. 

The title is given by those who have lately been in 
Alaska grubbing for gold to a genial, jovial^ old hunter i 
and prospector who went into that frozen country before, 
many of those who have since grown rich there had everij 
more than heard of it. Had it not been for John Healy, I 
indeed, it is doubtful if the world would yet know of the 
riches of the Klondike. Because, after he had wandered 
over the Alaskan hills and learned what the country jl 
contained, he came back to civilization in the interest of 
opening up the region to prospectors and hunters, while 
others who were there were doing their best to keep it I 
closed. 

But aside from being the so-called King of the Klon- 
dike, John Healy has an interesting history. At the 
start he was a boy in New York. Then he ran away) 
from home to join the Walker filibusters on the Pacific 
Coast. Later he became a hunter, trapper, prospector, 
guide, and scout on the Western plains, and a Montana 
sheriff. Twelve years ago he went to Alaska, and has 
been the means of organizing the largest transportation i 
company that now operates in the country. Dyea, which 
is now one of the principal points on the mountain route 
to the Klondike diggings, was once Healy's Store. The: 
so-called king of to-day established his trading post! 
there years and years ago. He is a pioneer of the 
pioneers. 

Incidentally, while a scout on the Western plains, 
Healy did a little work for the government, and at one 
time offered to bring in the ferocious old Indian warrior, 



KING OF THE KLONDIKE. * Q j 

Sitting Bull," either dead or alive, for the sum of $50,000. 
ill his life Healyhas been a rover, an active, ardent, and 
ourageous explorer of new countries. Civilization has 
o charms for him. He is a lover of the wildest nature, 
f the camp-fire, the mountain pass, and the trials and 
}ys of the hunter. For forty-five years he has lived in 
le mountains and on the plains digging for gold or 
radingf in furs. To his love of adventure and to his 
enius for exploration the men who are now growing 
ich in the Alaskan gold fields may be largely thankful, 
nd his reward will no doubt come to him in other prac- 
cal ways, even if his mines do not show the riches they 
rOTnise. 

Since the Klondike excitement began a great deal of 
lention has been made in the papers of Captain Healy 
-he has the title captain as well as that of king. 

Healy's life has been an adventure from the start. He 
as always had a liking for the plains and he had a 
aste of frontier life and war early in his existence. The 
rst was when he ran away from his home to join the 
libustering forces of the venturesome and daring 
Valker. Walker, as those who are acquainted with the 
listory of the middle of this century will remember, had 
a hand a project for the conquest of northern Mexico, 
nth the idea of making himself its ruler. He was born 
n Nashville, Tenn., had studied medicine in Europe and 
aw in this country, and practiced both. In 1850 he went 
California as a lawyer and an editor, and three years 
ater organized his expedition to take northern Mexico, 



408 



THE PACIFIC REPUBLIC. 



where it was announced he intended to establish th 
Pacific republic. 

This daring enterprise appealed at once to youm 
Healy, and he cut away from home to join the exped; 
tion. The party eluded the vigilance of the Unite 
States authorities, and sailed from San Francisco, lano 
ine soon after in Lower California with one hundred an 
seventy men. Walker at once proclaimed himself Pres 
dent of the new republic, but the party was soon assaile 
by a large force of Mexicans, and driven across tl: 
border to surrender to the United States troops. If r. 
had been successful Healy would probably have bee 
one of his chief lieutenants in the government. 

Healy did not join Walker in his expeditions after w 
failure of the Pacific republic. He was in that ente 
prise only for the daring and excitement of the thin 
and after it was over he went to the plains. It was thei 
that he found the surroundings that best suited him, ar. 
the life he preferred above all others. For years he ii 
habited the camps of the Indians, followed the trail of tl 
buffalo, and traded in skins and furs. Other years 1 
spent in prospecting in the rich hills of the Rockie 
making a good strike once in a while, cleaning up > 
good bit of money, but always pushing on to somethir 
i new. 

At the time of the Mormon war, of course, he mac 
for Salt Lake City, and was happy in the activity ar. 
dangers f the times. Later he became sheriff of one 
the counties of Montana, which speaks well for his cou 



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OLD SITTING BULL. 4I j 

age. No tenderfoot could hold his job as sheriff in Mon- 
tana in these bad times. The cowboys were full of bad 
medicine. 

It was during his days as a scout and a guide on the 
plains that he fell in with old Sitting Bull. There was a 
warm liking between Healy and the Indian chief, if that 
ferocious old red man can be said to have had any liking 
for anybody. 

It cannot be said that Captain Healy went to Alaska 
with any idea that there would ever be any such gold 
excitement there as has recently developed. Twelve 
years ago no one suspected that the river beds up there 
were shining with the yellow metal. Healy went there 
to engage in the fur trade. That and salmon fishing 
made up the list of everything Alaska was supposed 
then to be good for. Being a prospector and a miner 
of experience, though, it did not take him long to learn 
that there was gold in Alaska, and he located and mined 
a good bit of it. In 1892 he went to Chicago to meet 
Portus B. Weare, with whom he had been enoaeed in 
the fur trade in the early days of the Northwest. He 
influenced Mr. Weare to start the North American 
Trading Company, now one of the largest of the com- 
panies doing business in the new country. Of this 
company Healy is now vice-president and general 
manager. 

Soon after going to Alaska Captain Healy built his 
fort at Dyea, near the Chilkoot Pass. He learned from 
the Indians that there was gold along the Yukon, and 



a 12 HEALY'S FORT. 

went there, prospecting along Forty-Mile, Sixty- Mile,< 
Stewart, and other rivers. His wanderings there gave 
him information that resulted in his returning to the 
States and subsequently to the organization of the 
gigantic company. 

Personally Captain Healy, the " King of the Klon-i? 
dike," is a genial, whole-souled sort of a man, compan- 
ionable and agreeable in all ways. His manners are 
quiet and gentle, and, though he likes to talk of his! 
doings on the plains, he never does so in a boasting 
way. In stature he is a little above the average. He is 
about five feet nine inches tall, weighs about one hun-i 
dred and eighty pounds, and has a pair of broad shoul- 
ders and a deep, sound chest. His face is expressive 
of courage, and that and his love of adventure are his 
chief characteristics. 

The history of the " bonanza kings " who have become' 
famous in all lands furnishes one of the most romantic 
and fascinating chapters in the history of the world. 
The rise and fall of Barney Barnato ^and the final 
tragedy of his life are still too fresh in the minds of the 
reader to need recounting here, though he was probably, 
the greatest of all the money princes of his class. His ; 
sudden acquisition of great wealth and the way he threw* 
it to the winds in luxurious living and lavish hospitality, 
and pomp has probably never been equalled. Some 
other instances of great luck in the gold fields are worth 
recounting. 

The most famous case of prodigal waste of a large 



LEMUEL BOWERS. ,, . , 

fortune in the Western mining region is that of Lemuel 
Bowers, better known as Sandy Bowers, of Gold Hill, 
near Carson City, Nevada. Probably there never was 
a more extravagant use of wealth than that of Sandy 
Bowers — " Coal Oil Johnny " not excepted. The late 
Senator James G. Fair said that he had never known of 
a great fortune so easily acquired and thrown away as 
that of Sandy Bowers. Bowers was a raw-boned, red- 
headed, ignorant Irish lad. He could read and write a 
little, and was the personification of good nature. When 
the bonanza ledge of the Comstock lode was found by 
Mackay, Fair, Flood, and O'Brien, in 1869, Bowers was 
a day laborer in Carson City. It was found that ten 
feet of Bowers's place, out on the hills, covered the 
silver lode, and that the little farm of a poor widow, 
Mrs. Bridget McCowan, covered hundreds of square 
feet of the silver bed beneath. Sandy and the widow 
had known each other in poverty for years, and when the 
dawn of prosperity came into their lives, they pooled 
their issues by marriage. The mines located on their 
combined farms were the famous Crown Point Ravine 
and the Bowers. In the summer of 1871 the Bowers 
couple had an income of $2,300 a day. For a year and 
a half they got checks semi-monthly for about $18,000, 
often $21,000. They received offers several times of 
about $1,000,000 for the Crown Point Ravine and the 
Bowers. 

It is not to be wondered at that Sandy and his bride were 
about wild with joy over the flood of money that came in 



, Iz , SANDY AND HIS BRIDE. 

upon them. Some people say they believed they had a 
veritable Aladdin's lamp, but others say they never heard 
of any such lamp, and were simply crazy from their 
extraordinary income. The Central and Union Pacific 
Railroads had been opened two years at that time. Rail- 
road fares in the West were high, and special cars cost 
small fortunes. Nevertheless, Sandy and Mrs. Bowers 
chartered a special train to take them and a score of 
friends to Chicago and New York. The Bowerses 
stocked the cars with all manner of fancy provisions. In 
Chicago, and later in New York, they took their guests 
to the best hotels and treated them lavishly. Then, in 
two weeks, the party returned to Carson City and Vir- 
ginia City. 

Sandy Bowers and his wife had seen the mansions of 
Chicago and New York, and they determined that, to 
occupy the places of millionaires, they must have a royal 
home instead of the red-wood, three-roomed house they 
had delighted in. An architect was summoned from 
San Francisco and set to work. 

"What we want is a bang-up mansion like what them 
other rich 'uns have, and we want it quick, too." This 
was Sandy's order. 

There was no talk about the cost of the house. A 
man who, two years before, occasionally earned $1.50 a 
day, and was then getting over $2,000 every day in the 
week from an apparently inexhaustible supply of rock 
under his farm, could not bother about a few extra thou- 
sand dollars in his home. The site chosen for the man- 



CROWN POINT MINE. * j r 

sion was in Washoe Valley, six miles from Gold Hill, in 
a desolate region, which Sandy thought looked like val- 
leys he had seen on the Hudson River. In speaking of 
the howling wilderness where the Bowers's mansion 
was erected, Mark Twain once wrote that "the first 
landscape gardener sent there by Sandy Bowers was 
slain by the Indians." 

The Crown Point Mine continued to pour out its 
riches, and in 1873 the Bowers's granite mansion was 
finished. The army of builders, decorators, landscape 
gardeners, and furnishers, all brought from San Fran- 
cisco, Chicago, and New York by Sandy's young busi- 
ness manager, had full swing, and had followed the 
miner's orders to "do the job in grand style." The 
house would be stately even now on Fifth Avenue or on 
Nob Hill. It was built of granite, and up to the day it 
was turned over to its owners it had cost upward of 
$460,000. Several men and women had traveled in 
Europe purposely for decorations for the mansion in the 
sage-brush, desolate valley of Washoe. There were 
twenty-four rooms in the house. A cologne fountain 
spouted in the marble front hall ; an immense buffet 
of teak-wood, carved in India expressly for the mansion, 
stood in the big dining-room ; several thousand books, 
bound in the costliest covers, and chosen by a man in 
Chicago, stood on the mahogany shelves in the library, 
and a marble bath-tub was one of the luxuries of the 
upper rooms. Sandy's friends said he paid bills to the 
amount of $25,000 for oil paintings alone that were sent 



416 



MILLIONAIRES' BANQUET. 



him from New York and abroad. An idea of the ex- 
travagance of the mansion may be had from the fact 
that the door-knobs were molded in solid silver from 
unique designs, while the stair-rods were of solid silver, 
tipped with solid gold. Such table vessels as soup- 
tureens and potato-dishes were of solid gold, and there 
were dinner and tea sets in solid silver throughout. 

Sandy and his wife moved from their $1,000 house 
into this mansion. Meanwhile the curse of a great many 
suddenly made millionaires in the West — a taste for in- 
toxicants — had its hold on Sandy. He entertained 
lavishly. A Fourth of July celebration and banquet 
to the bonanza mining millionaires, in 1873, was the most 
elaborate affair known even in those days of prodigality. 
It is said to have cost $1 1,000 for the day's hospitality to 
forty gentlemen. Sandy became more reckless as his 
taste for liquor grew. When his silver ledges began to 
" pinch out," disasters came upon him thick and fast. In 
1875 his income had decreased to a few hundred dollars 
a month. He was living at the rate of a thousand or 
two a week. He mortgaged his property, sold his library 
and art treasures piece by piece. Then he parted with 
his costly furniture for a song. The Crown Point Ravine 
petered out entirely in 1876, and Bowers and his wife 
lived in a single room of their big house. Everything 
that could be converted into ready cash was sold at any 
price. Sandy died in 1877. He was buried by contri- 
butions from people who had enjoyed his bounty when 
he was rich. Mrs. Bowers is still alive. She goes about 



MONTANA BAR. 



417 



California and Nevada telling fortunes from cards, at 
twenty-five and fifty cents a head. She is very poor and 
feeble. She recently told a reporter in Los Angeles that 
her only hope is to get enough money together to be 
buried at the side of her husband in Carson Crty. 

The Bowers mansion is in ruins now. It was proposed 
that James J. Corbett might use it as a home and train- 
ing place in his preparations for the recent fight with 
Fitzsimmons at Carson City, but the building was found 
too dilapidated even for temporary occupancy. 

Accident pure and simple led to the discovery of 
Montana Bar, the richest half-acre of gold ground in 
the world. In the spring of 1864 four prospectors — 
McGregor, Fredericks, Sullivan, and Wright — were 
straggling through a gulch on the east side of the Mis- 
souri River, a few miles from the site of the present city 
of Helena. Pausing for rest, one of the parties scooped 
up and began to wash a panful of dirt. Their pickings 
up to that time had been very dry, and the miner's sur- 
prise may be imagined when, from a single shovelful of 
dirt he washed about forty dollars in coarse dust. Ex- 
citedly announcing his discovery to his companions, they 
set to work with a will, and by nightfall had a pile of dust 
and nuggets worth $21,000. Early in the morning of 
the second day they located all the ground the law 
allowed by driving stakes, with the usual posted notices, 
and then resumed digging and washing. The locality 
was an isolated one, and they guarded their find with 
such care that no hint of it reached the outside world. 



4i8 



HIDING THEIR GOLD. 



When the coming on of winter made further operations 
impossible, they had taken from half an acre of ground 
three and a half tons of coarse gold, worth not less than 
a million dollars. The gold had been hidden as rapidly 
as taken out under the log cabin they had thrown up 
as a habitation. How to get safely away with their 
treasure was the problem which now confronted them. 
A covered freight wagon, a four-horse team, and a num- 
ber of empty nail kegs were bought at the nearest set- 
tlement and taken to the claim, where, at the end of a 
week, the dust was packed in the kegs and the latter 
securely bound with thongs of rawhide. Then the kegs 
were loaded into the wagon, and by easy stages conveyed 
a distance of 120 miles to Fort Benton, the head of 
navigation on the Missouri. Then, after much delib- 
eration, it was decided to build a flat-boat that would go 
over the shallow places, and with it float down the river 
to St. Joseph, which plan, after several startling expe- 
riences, was successfully carried out. Following the 
departure of McGregor and his comrades a stampede 
to the gulch set in, and many good finds were made. In 
one instance a miner who had staked off a claim and 
found good prospects was bantered by a bystander who 
owned a couple of pack horses for a trade. This was 
quickly agreed to, and in a few weeks the new owner 
took out dust to the value of $56,000. Another valu- 
able claim was bought with a Colt's revolver. The total 
yield of the gulch exceeded three million dollars. 

Chance also led to the discovery of the famous Com- 






■<#*: 







Klondike Gold Mining. Showing Sluice, 



COMSTOCK LODE. 42I 

stock lode in Nevada. The site of the lode, so the story 
runs, was prospected by a miner named Comstock, who 
thought so little of the claim which he had located that 
he soon abandoned it. Then an eccentric character, 
Finney by name, while hunting in the neighborhood, shot 
a deer, which struggled off as fast as it could, with Fin- 
ney in hot pursuit. The hunter, in scrambling up the 
side of a hill, dislodged some loose stones, and, as he 
passed, thought he perceived signs of " color." At the 
moment, however, the wounded deer claimed his atten- 
tion, and, though upon his return to camp he related the 
incident, he does not seem to have attached much im- 
portance to it, for he made no effort to return and locate 
a claim. But Peter O'Reilly and Patrick McLaughlin, 
overhearing his story, resolved to examine the locality, 
and a few days later began operations on the site of the 
present Comstock mines. At first their search seemed 
a futile one, but they persevered, and being finally 
attracted by some curious-looking black earth, they 
washed a little of it in a pan. To' their surprise, from 
the small quantity of earth tested came ten or fifteen 
dollars' worth of gold. This served to raise their drooping 
hopes and they were making splendid progress when 
Comstock appeared and demanded to know what they 
were doing on his claim. Compelled either to kill the 
claimant or to take him into partnership, O'Reilly and 
McLaughlin chose the lesser of the two evils. But no 
sooner was Comstock pacified than along came Finney, 
or Old Virginny, as he was called, and demanded a share 



a 22 OLD VIRGINNY. 

also for having furnished the information that led to the 
discovery. He was more easily placated than Comstock, 
for after some negotiation and no end of swearing, he 
was bought off with $25, an Indian pony, and a jug of 
whisky, the additional compliment being paid him of 
naming the new-found mine after the State from which he 
came and which furnished him with a nickname. Finney 
was killed not long afterward by a bucking mule, and two 
of his associates met with an equally luckless fate. 
O'Reilly died insane, and Comstock, after permitting in- 
calculable wealth to slip through his hands, became almost 
a pauper and shot himself while searching for the famous 
Lost Cabin mine in the Big Horn range. 

The Comstock mine has made more money for the 
owners in the years which have followed than any other 
enterprise of its kind in the world. Some of the best 
known of the mining kings have lived for years in lux- 
urious palaces as the result of the ore taken from this 
famous lode. 

The name of the Nick o' Time mine in Arizona re- 
calls a singular story of its discovery. A miner, named 
John Quincy Adams, who was prospecting in the moun- 
tains of that territory, while wearily trudging along one 
hot day through a gulch where the sun beat fiercely 
upon his back, suddenly smelled smoke. He glanced 
quickly about him to ascertain its origin, but, seeing 
nothing, resumed his journey. An instant later the 
smell returned, stronger than before, and a tiny wreath 
of smoke curling about his ears gave him warning that 



BLOWING OPEN A GOLD MINE. ^ 2 , 

his haversack was on fire. Following the usual practice 
of miners, his kit included a large lens for examining the 
specimens and the sand in his pan. This, for want of 
room, he had hung on the outside of his haversack, 
where, concentrating the rays of the sun, it had set the 
pack on fire. Stowed up in the haversack were twelve 
or fifteen pounds of powder, and Adams, as soon as he 
realized his peril, lost no time in dropping his burden 
between two huge stones and getting as far away as 
possible before it exploded. Then, from a safe distance, 
he watched the faint puffs of smoke and waited until the 
expected explosion was over, so that he could return 
and gather up the remnants of his scanty belongings. 
Suddenly there was a deafening report, and the ground 
trembled beneath the feet of the miner, who dodged 
behind a friendly rock to escape the fragments of flying 
wreck. The danger past, he hurried to the spot to 
gather up what he could find, when, to his surprise and 
joy, he discovered that the quartz that had been blown 
up fairly glittered with gold. His powder had done 
better on its own account than it had ever done on his, 
and had literally blown open a gold mine for his benefit. 
For that reason Adams named his mine the Nick o' 
Time. Many thousands of dollars soon passed into 
Adams's pocket, and he became immensely rich. 

The Christmas Gift mine in California got its name in 
not less curious fashion. Its discoverer was one of a 
hunting party that had gone out from San Francisco 
during the Christmas holidays. While following a nar- 



4 2A CHRISTMAS GIFT MINE. 

row trail that skirted the side of a steep hill, his horse 
suddenly stumbled and, with its rider, slid into the gulch 
below. Chancing to be the last in the line and some 
distance behind his companions, the huntsman was not 
missed for some moments. When his absence was 
finally noticed the party turned back to look for him, 
fearinsf some untoward accident. At first no trace of 
him could be found, but the place where the horse had 
slipped and fallen over the bank, together with the 
traces of the fall, being plainly visible, the men slowly 
picked their way down the slope and, when near the 
bottom, came upon an interesting spectacle. Just behind 
a clump of bushes, which rider and horse had crashed 
through on their way down, stood the animal, apparently 
uninjured, while on a slab of rock nearby the man was 
capering like an Indian at a ghost dance. Fear seized 
the members of the rescuing party that their friend had 
lost his senses, but catching sight of them he ceased his 
dancing and beckoned them to come to him. When 
they joined him he showed them several lumps of almost 
pure gold, hastily knocked from the ledge with a stone 
for a hammer, and announced his discovery of a gold 
mine. The sliding horse had brought up against the 
ledge and the restive animal in trying to rise had kicked 
the moss from the stone and thus disclosed a gold-bear- 
ing vein of exceptional richness, which its lucky finder 
appropriately named the Christmas Gift. 

Still, pluck is often more potent than luck, and Jim 
Whitlach, of Nevada, a famous miner, lately dead, was 



PLUCK OR LUCK. , 2 ~ 

wont to say that the man who followed prospecting for 
a dozen years or more was sure in the course of time to 
strike it rich. The history of David Swickhimer and his 
wife gives striking confirmation to Whitlach's dictum. It 
was in 1884 that Swickhimer appeared in Rico, Col., and 
opened a small saloon, which soon numbered among its 
patrons a prospector named George Barlow. The latter 
was half owner of several mines near Rico, and when, in 
1885, he asked Swickhimer, who by this time had found 
liquor-selling a long road to wealth, to buy out his part- 
ner, the saloon-keeper accepted the proposition. The 
prospect looked good, but the mineral was slow in com- 
ing in, and when the shaft was 250 feet deep Barlow gave 
up in disgust and presented his half of the claim to his 
now penniless partner, whose money had all been swept 
into the hole on the side of Dolores Mountain. Swick- 
himer's spirits had also sunk to a low ebb, and when a 
miner with some money and more faith offered him $500 
for the claim he was inclined to accept the proposition, 
and would have done so had not his plucky wife entered 
an emphatic protest against it. Instead, she found a 
place as a servant, and in due course of time work, 
single-handed, was begun in the shaft by the husband. 

Then came an unlooked-for turn in the road. Un- 
known to her husband, Mrs. Swickhimer had invested 
in a lottery, and one day word came to her that her 
ticket had drawn a prize of $5,000. This money was 
promptly put into the shaft, and while it lasted every- 
thing went swimmingly, but with old debts to be paid 



428 



THE SWICKHIMERS. 



and new machinery to be bought, in a short space of 
time he again found himself penniless, with nothing to 
show for his time, labor, and money but a hole a little 
less than than 300 feet deep and — no ore. Once more 
the Swickhimers proved the sturdy stuff of which they 
were made. They went to work for wages, and as soon 
as they had saved a few hundred dollars operations were 
resumed in their mine. Their labor and weary waiting 
now had their reward, for when 300 feet of depth had 
been gained the long-sought-for vein was struck, and it 
ran 500 ounces of silver and five ounces of gold to the 
ton. That was eight years ago, and to-day Swickhimer 
is President of the Rico National Bank and the owner 
of a great many houses in Denver and several business 
blocks in Pueblo. In two years and a half he took out 
of his mine $1,000,000 worth of gold and silver, and 
then sold it to an English syndicate for $1,500,000 cash. 
His wife, the star'that led him on to success, is also rich 
in her own right, for his first act after selling the mine i 
was to make over to her two-thirds of the purchase- 
money. Their days of scrimping economy, thanks to a 
woman's pluck, are ended for good and all. But with 
the money happiness did not come to the couple, for 
they have since been divorced. 

Pluck also made a many-times millionaire of Thomas 
Cruse, discoverer of the famous Drum Lunnon mine in 
Montana. A dozen years ago Cruse, who had been a 
miner from his teens, could be found at the bottom of 
the claim he had located in the rough mountain country, 



THOMAS CRUSE. 42g 

a few miles from Helena, working with pick and shovel 
for the treasure he never lost hope of finding. His 
neighbors, who called him Old Tommy, looked upon him 
as a harmless crank, and when, after years of patient 
delving and digging, he struck into a vein of rich ore, 
few placed the value of the mine, where he lived and 
worked alone, so high as did tne owner. When he re- 
fused $500,000 for it the people of Helena said he was 
foolish, and when he turned away from an offer of 
$1,000,000 they set him down as a fool. But the miner 
was wiser than those who had nothing save advice to 
give him, and eventually received his price, $3,000,000 
and a goodly number of shares in the new company. 
Then, as so often is the case, the old familiarity was 
dropped and the Tommy of other days became Mr. 
Thomas Cruse, capitalist. A kindly-hearted, thoroughly 
honest man, of whom all who knew him are ready to say 
a good word, he is in these days a familiar figure on the 
streets of Helena, and the president of a savings bank 
in the city where, when a struggling prospector, he often 
found it difficult to get trusted for enough to keep him- 
self alive — a notable example of the ups and downs of a 
miner's life. 

Pluck also made a millionaire of N. C. Creede, from 
whom the town of Creede, Col., takes it name. A native 
of Indiana, reared in Iowa, he entered the regular army 
when he was nineteen, and for seven years served as a 
scout against the Indians. In 1869 he took up the life 
of a prospector, and for upwards of two decades roamed 



4^o N - C - CREEDE. 

the mountains of the West in search of silver-bearing 
quartz. Usually a partner kept him company in his 
wanderings, but now and then he could get no one, either 
for love or money, to share them. Each year he stayed 
in the mountains until the snow came, and many months 
went by without his seeing the face or hearing the voice 
of a fellow-being. Twice he was stricken with pneu- 
monia in the mountains. Luckily he had a companion 
each time, or death would have ended his prospecting for 
good and all. However, his labor and hardships counted 
for naught, and the spring of 1890 found him as poor as 
he had been twenty years before. 

Still hopeful and stout of heart, Creede resumed his 
wanderings, and in May of the year just named struck 
some float on the side of Mammoth Mountain, near 
the site of the present town of Creede. Float is the 
name given to stray pieces of rock broken from a min- 
eral-bearing ore and washed down a mountain by water 
and frost. He tied his burros and began to follow it, 
climbing the mountain in the trail of the float all day. 
The sun was beating down on him ; the glint of the 
float under his feet was blinding ; but still he pushed 
forward, and just as a gorgeous sunset reddened the 
western sky the tired man lifted his head, and there, pro- 
jecting out in front of him, was a bowlder of silicate as 
big as a house ! He had found the source of the float 
which he had followed all day. " I almost screamed 
with delight," said he afterward. "I knew it would 
come some day, but the idea of finding it in such shape 



REININGER AND HAAS. , ^ „ 

was appalling to me. I staked off a claim, which I 
named the Mammoth, and then went back to camp and 
slept as I hadn't slept for years before." 

Fortune, after eluding Creede for half a lifetime, now 
showered her favors upon him. The sale of the Mam- 
moth and of three other claims, including the Holy 
Moses, brought him $25,000, and the confidence and 
financial backing of David H. Moffat, a wealthy banker 
of Denver. Two Germans, named Reininger and Haas, 
were prospecting a claim on Bachelor Mountain when 
in August, 1 89 1, along came Creede, with his eyes open 
as of old. What he saw about the Reininger-Haas dig- 
gings made him laugh. There was a hole in the ground 
where there was small prospect of striking anything 
short of China, and a stake with a notice on it, which no 
man could interpret. But the scene round about was 
cheering to a wonderful degree. The translucent rocks 
that could be found there by the ton were of amethyst 
quartz. A mine worth millions was just under the roots 
of the grass and the flowers, while no end of wealth pro- 
truded into the sunshine. It would have been easy for 
the experienced Creede to have deprived Reininger and 
Haas of all right in the vein, but he was not that kind of 
a man. Instead, he helped to set their stakes properly, 
and then located a claim on the vein at the end of theirs, 
which he named the Amethyst. With Moffat's money 
behind him he at once began digging and shipping ore 
from what has proved to be one of the richest silver 
mines in Colorado, and six months later he had realized 



434 



WINFIELD S. STRATTON. 



the hope that for so many years spurred him on. He 
had attained the income of a millionaire. 

The plucky and long-continued battle against ill for- 
tune waged by Winfield S. Stratton, now the wealthiest 
resident of Cripple Creek, has had as happy an ending 
as the story of which Creede is the hero. Prior to 1891 
Stratton was a carpenter. That was his trade, but he 
felt a call to prospect. He would push the jackplane 
long enough to get a grub stake, and then hasten to the 
newest mining camp. Almost every camp in Colorado 
claimed him as a resident at one time or another. He 
prospected every gulch and hillside in the gold camps, 
and made futile search for carbonates in Leadville. For 
many years Stratton wandered over the face of nature 
looking for float. When Cripple Creek came into notice he 
was working at his trade in Pueblo. Too poor to travel 
by rail, he walked into the new country and located a claim 
on the slope of Battle Mountain. He entered his claim 
desperately, more to have one than because he had any 
faith in its future. His becoming- a millionaire was but 
the result of his customary hard luck. He had located 
two claims, and set up his stakes on July 4th, 1891. 
Being nothing if not patriotic, he named one claim 
Washington and the other Independence. The latter 
showed the best prospects, and Stratton bent his ener- 
gies to its development. One day he struck a good ore 
body and gladly accepted an offer of $10,000 for the 
claim. The would-be purchaser gave him $1,000 to 
bind the bargain, but was never able to make good the 



LUCKY FAILURE. A n c 

balance. Suing the person who had contracted for the 
mine proved a losing venture, and Stratton dejectedly 
resumed work. The failure to make a sale, however, 
was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him, for in 
the five years that have since elapsed he has taken out 
$5,000,000 worth of ore, and has $3,000,000 worth of ore 
exposed. He has declined a cash offer of $10,000,000 
for his property, and has to wage a hand-to-hand fight 
with fate to keep his income from the Independence 
below $150,000 per month. He owns other properties 
also, and his present fortune is estimated at not less 
than $20,000,000. 

While Australia probably leads the gold world in the 
size of nuggets, or pieces of almost pure gold, picked up 
by chance or by the miner in search of ore, many more 
have been found in America than in any other land. 

The first big lumps of gold found in California created 
a great excitement among the miners. They at once 
began picturing in imagination masses of gold larger 
than could be lifted by a dozen men. . It was a common 
camp-fire amusement. There were afloat stories of men 
sitting down to starve by huge golden bowlders rather 
than risk leaving their finds to go in search of trans- 
portation facilities. The first nugget of sufficient size 
to create more than a mere local sensation was found 
by a young man named Henrickson. It is related that 
he found it in the Mokelumne River while in the act of 
taking a drink from that stream. The nugget weighed 
nearly twenty-five pounds. The finder at once hastened 



1 ^ 



436 



TWENTY-FIVE POUND NUGGET. 



to San Francisco with his prize, where he at once placed 
it in the hands of Colonel Mason for safe-keeping. The 
big lump was sent to New York and placed on exhibi- 
tion. It produced great excitement, and was probably 
the cause of many a man striking out for California. 
The largest mass of gold ever found in California was 
that dug out at Carson Hill, Calaveras County, in 1854. 
It weighed 195 pounds. Other lumps weighing several 
pounds were found at the same place. 

August 1 8th, i860, W. A. Farish and Harry Warner 
took from the Monumental quartz mine, Sierra County, 
a mass of gold and quartz weighing 133 pounds. It was 
sold to R. B.Woodward, of San Francisco, for $21,636.52. 
It was exhibited at Woodward's Gardens for some time, 
then was melted down. It yielded gold to the value of 
$17,654.94. August 4th, 1858, Ira A. Willard found on 
the west branch of Feather River a nugget which 
weighed 54 pounds avoirdupois before, and 49^ pounds 
after melting. A nugget dug at Kelsey, El Dorado 
County, was sold for $4,700. In 1864 a nugget was found 
in the Middle Fork of the American River, two miles 
from Michigan Bluff, that weighed eighteen pounds ten 
ounces, and was sold for $4,204 by the finder. 

In 1 850, at Corona, Tuolumne County, was found a gold 
quartz nugget which weighed 151 pounds 6 ounces. 
Haifa mile east of Columbia, Tuolumne County, near 
the Knapp ranch, a Mr. Strain found a nugget which 
weighed fifty pounds avoirdupois. It yielded $8,500 
when melted. In 1849 was found in Sullivan's Creek, 



SOME BIG ONES. ,,7 

Tuolumne County, a nugget that weighed twenty-eight 
pounds avoirdupois. In 1871 a nugget was found in 
Kanaka Creek, Sierra County, that weighed ninety-six 
pounds. At Rattlesnake Creek, the same year, a nugget 
weighing 106 pounds 2 ounces was found. A quartz 
bowlder found in French Gulch, Sierra County, in 1851, 
yielded $8,000 in gold. 

In 1867 a bowlder of gold quartz was found at Pilot 
Hill, El Dorado County, that yielded $8,000 when worked 
up. It was found in what is known as the " Bowlder 
Gravel" claim, from which many smaller gold quartz 
nuggets have been taken at various times. Some years 
ago a Frenchman found a nugget of almost pure gold, 
worth over $5,000, in Spring Gulch, Tuolumne County. 
The next day the man became insane. He was sent to 
the Stockton Asylum, and the nugget was forwarded to 
the French Consul at San Francisco, who sent its value 
to the family of the finder in France. In 1854 a mass 
of gold was found at Columbia, Tuolumne, weighing 
thirty pounds, and yielded $6,625. A Mr. Virgin found 
at Gold Hill, in the same county, a bowlder that weighed 
thirty-one pounds eight ounces, and when melted yielded 
$6,500. 

A gold quartz bowlder found at Minnesota, Sierra 
County, weighed twenty-two pounds and two ounces, 
and yielded $5,000. In 1850 a nugget was found at 
French Gulch, in the same county, that weighed twenty- 
one pounds and eleven ounces, and contained gold to 
the value of $4,893. In 1876 J. D. Colgrove, of Dutch 






438 



RICHES IN LUMPS. 



Flat, Placer County, found a white quartz bowlder in the 
Polar Star hydraulic claim from which he obtained gold 
to the value of $5,760. 

At the Monumental quartz mine, Sierra County, in 
1869, was found a mass of gold that weighed ninety-five 
pounds six ounces. It was found in decomposed quartz 
at a depth of twenty-five feet below the surface. This 
was the only "pay" found in that particular part of the 
mine. All the auriferous energy of the vein at that 
point seemed to have been concentrated in the one 
nugget. In 1855 a nugget weighing sixty pounds was 
found at Alleghanytown, Sierra County. It was a mass 
of gold taken from a quartz vein. Several other large 
" chunks " were taken from the same mine — lumps of 
nearly pure gold weighing from one pound to ten or 
twelve pounds. These masses of gold were dug by 
Frank Cook (afterward City Marshal of Marysville) and 
others, his partners. 

In 1 85 1 a Mr. Chapman and others flumed a set of 
claims on the middle Yuba. When the water was turned 
from the river into the flume, about the first thing seen 
in the exposed bed of the channel was a horseshoe- 
shaped mass of pure gold, which weighed twenty-eight 
pounds. This was a very handsome and "showy" 
nugget. It was sold to Major Jack Stratman of San 
Francisco. 

The Sailor Diggings, on the north fork of the Yuba, 
just below the mouth of Sailor Ravine, about three miles 
above Downieville, were wonderfully rich in nuggets. 



PLENTY OF NUGGETS. 4 ~g 

The diggings were owned and worked by a party of 
English sailors in 185 1. In their claim the sailors found 
a nugget of pure gold that weighed thirty-one pounds. 
They also found a great number of nuggets weighing 
from five to fifteen pounds. The party all left together 
for England. They took with them all the nuggets they 
found — both great and small. They were carried in two 
canvas sacks, the weight being- too great to be conve- 
niently handled in a single sack. When the party reached 
England, they for a considerable time made a business 
of exhibiting their collection of nuggets and various fancy 
specimens in all the large towns and cities, thus infecting 
great numbers of people with the gold-digging fever, for 
just at that time came the world-startling news of the 
great gold discoveries made in April of that year in 
Australia. 

In French Ravine, Sierra County, in 1855, there was 
found in the claim of a Missourian named Smith a 
double nugget of almost pure gold. The larger of the 
two nuggets weighed fifty pounds, and connected with 
it by a sort of neck was a lump of gold that weighed 
fifteen pounds. In taking out the large nugget the two 
were broken apart. The large nugget yielded $10,000 
and the small one $3,000. 

In September, 1850, L. P. Wardell, now in Virginia 
City, found in Mad Canon, on the middle fork of the 
American River, a nugget of solid gold weighing six 
pounds. The nugget had in it a round hole, and the 
finder made use of it in his cabin as a candlestick. It 



44Q A VALUABLE CANDLESTICK. 

was doubtless the most valuable candlestick on the 
Pacific Coast. After the nugget had been thus used so 
long that it was covered with candle grease, the owner 
sold it, grease and all. 

In the early days of placer mining in California col- 
ored miners were proverbially lucky. Companies of 
white men were always ready to take in a colored man 
as a partner, believing he would bring them good luck. 
Steve Gillis, of Virginia, Nev., a veteran printer and 
pioneer miner of the Pacific Coast, tells of the fol- 
lowing sample of "nigger luck:" In 1868 a colored 
miner who was out on a prospecting trip found on the 
slope of Table Mountain, Tuolumne County, a nugget 
that weighed thirty-five pounds avoirdupois and yielded 
over $ 7,000. The nugget was found on the slope where 
Table Mountain drifts down toward Shaw's Flat. The 
man saw a corner of it sticking out of the ground, and, 
digging it up, he planted it in a new place near by, 
marking the spot, and continued on his way to his in- 
tended prospecting ground. 

He did not take up a claim where he found the nugget, 
as he believed it to have rolled down from some point 
high up on Table Mountain. He found such good pay 
in the place he went to prospect that he remained there 
at work for several weeks, feeling quite at ease in regard 
to the big nugget he had cached. 

Finally he quit work in his new diggings and set out 
to look for his big nugget. On coming in sight of the 
spot where he had buried it he almost dropped in his 



A CLOSE CALL. ,,- 

tracks, for he saw a big company of men at work just 
where he had made his " plant." The men proved to be 
a lot of Italians and they had worked up to within about 
ten feet of the spot where lay buried the big nugget. 
The colored miner explained the situation to the Italians 
and they permitted him to dig up and carry away his 
nugget. 

Near Sonora, Tuolumne County, in 1852, a nugget 
weighing forty-five pounds and containing gold to the 
value of about $8,000 was found. The finder had a friend 
who was far gone with consumption, yet was trying to 
work in the mine. The owner of the nugget saw that by 
working in the water and lifting heavy bowlders this 
man was fast killing himself. He told his friend to take 
the big nugget and go back to the States and exhibit it, 
as at that time such a mass of native gold was a curi- 
osity to see which many would willingly pay a reason- 
able sum. 

As the ailing man was well educated it was arranged 
that besides the nugget he should take some fine dust, 
"chispas," gold-bearing quartz, black sand, gravel, and 
dirt from a placer, and the like, and with all was to fix up 
a lecture on life in the mines, mining operations, and 
California in general. When the owner of the nugget 
wanted it or its value he was to let the other know of 
his need. 

The sick man took the nugget to the States, got up 
his lecture, and did well wherever he went. For a time 
the miner heard from his friend pretty regularly, then 



444 HIS FRIEND DIES. 

for months lost track of him. He began to think his 
nugget lost ; that perhaps his friend had been murdered 
and robbed in some out-of-the-way place. 

One day, however, a letter reached the miner from a 
banker in New Orleans, telling him that his friend had 
died in that city, but had left the big nugget at the bank 
subject to his order. The miner wrote to have the nug- 
get melted down, and in due time he received a check 
for a little over $8,000. 

Pocket mining as practiced by the experts of California 
is a branch of gold-hunting that may be said to stand by 
itself as an " art." The pocket miner follows up the 
trail of gold thrown off from a quartz vein and strewn 
down a mountain slope until he at last reaches the 
mother deposit whence the gold scattered below pro- 
ceeded. This is an operation which sometimes requires 
many days to be devoted to the careful washing of sam- 
ples of dirt taken from the slope of a mountain. Many 
rich pockets have, however, been found by accident. 
One of the richest of the pocket mines in California was 
that in the Morgan mine on Carson Hill, Calaveras 
County, from which $110,000 was thrown out at one 
blast. The gold so held the quartz together that it had 
to be cut apart with cold chisels. It is estimated that 
this mine yielded $2,800,000 in the years 1850 and 1851, 
and new pockets have since been discovered almost 
yearly somewhere in the peculiar formation at and about 
Carson Hill. 

The telluride veins of Sierra County, extending from 



RICH POCKETS. *** 

Minnesota to the South Yuba, have been prolific of 
pockets. A big pocket found in the Fellows' mine on 
this belt yielded $250,000. Many other pockets yield- 
ing from $5,000 to $50,000 have been found in this region. 

Many rich pockets have been found about Grass Val- 
ley, Nevada County ; Auburn, Placer County, and Sonora, 
Tuolumne County. The " Reece Pocket," Grass Valley, 
contained $40,000. This sum was pounded out in a 
hand-mortar in less than a month. Near Grass Valley 
a pocket that yielded $60,000 was found by a sick " pil- 
grim," who was in search of health, and knew nothing 
about mining. 

The " Green Emigrant " pocket vein, near Auburn, 
was found by an emigrant who had never seen a mine. 
It yielded $160,000. This find was made within thirty 
yards of a road that had been traveled daily for twenty 
years. No more " pay" was found after the first pocket 
was worked. The " Devol" pocket, in Sonora, along- 
side the main street of the town, owned by three men, 
yielded $200,000 in 1879. It was nearly all taken out 
in three weeks. The " grit specimen," showing arbures- 
cent crystallization, sent to the Paris Exposition, was 
found in Spanish Dry Diggings, El Dorado County, 
weighed over twenty pounds and contained over $4,000 
in gold. About $8,000 additional of the same kind of 
gold crystals was taken from the same pocket. The 
formation at this place is slate and a fine-grained sand- 
stone filled with crystals of iron pyrites in cubes. At 
American Camp, between the forks of the Stanislaus, in 



446 



FROM THE GRASS ROOTS. 



1880, Le Roy Reid found a pocket in the "grass roots," 
from which he took out $8,200. Near Magalia, Butte 
County, in 1879, a pocket paid its finder $400 per two 
hours' work. 

The largest nugget ever found in Nevada was one 
taken out of the Osceola placer mine about twenty years 
ago. It weighed twenty-four pounds, and is supposed 
to have contained nearly $4,000 in gold. A hired man 
found and stole it, but repenting, gave up to the owners 
in a month or two over $2,000 in small bars — all he had 
left of the big chunk. In the same mine, about a year 
ago, a nugget worth $2,190 was found. 

Montana's largest nugget was one found by Ed Ris- 
ing at Snow Shoe Gulch, on the Little Blackfoot River. 
It was worth $3,356. It lay twelve feet below the sur- 
face and about a foot above the bed-rock. 

Colorado's biggest nugget was found at Breckenridge. 
It weighed thirteen pounds, but was mixed with lead 
carbonate and quartz. 

The pioneer nuggets in the United States were found 
in the placers of the Appalachian range of mountains, 
where gold was discovered as early as 1828. In Octo- 
ber, 1828, a negro found grains of fine gold in Bear 
Creek, Georgia, but the discovery did not attract much 
attention. Presently the same negro found a nugget in 
the Nacoochee River worth several thousand dollars. 
This " find " started a gold-hunting furor. Several other 
nuggets of considerable size have been found in Georgia 
at various times. 






m 
_ 




Juneau— Nearest City to Chilkoot Pass. 



NORTH CAROLINA LUMPS. aaq 

The largest nugget ever found in the Appalachian 
mining region was that dug at the Reed mine in North 
Carolina. It weighed eighty pounds. 

In the same State some children playing along a creek 
found a nugget that weighed twelve pounds. The quartz 
veins of this region generally show a good deal of coarse 
gold, good-sized lumps, but seldom weighing as much as 
a pound. 



29 



CHAPTER XX. 

Alaska's silent city. 

Auroral Display During August — Awe-inspiring Mirages — " Dick." Willough- 
by's Negative — A Splendid Business Venture — Prince Luigi's Vision. 
— The Most Famous Mirage Anywhere to be Found — L. B. French's 
Story of The Silent City— How Willoughby Made His Find— A Stone 
Pile for a Record Vault — President Jordan Investigates — The Scientific 
Explanation of Mirages — When and Where They Occur. 

BRILLIANT auroral displays and mirages often ap- 
pear in the glacier country of southeastern Alaska 
during the month of August. By refraction the ice-floes 
are frequently magnified into ice cliffs iooo feet high, 
apparently barring a ship's retreat to the southward. 
Richard C. Willoughby, familiarly known to all Alaskans 
as "Dick" Willoughby, in 1889 claimed to have taken 
a photograph of a mirage which represented a birds-eye- 
view of an old English city. Since then nine out of ten 
tourists in the course of their travels through Alaska have 
spent more or less time in trying to get a glimpse of 
what is called in the guide books the "Silent City." 
The discoverer has in the meantime made several thou- 
sand dollars through the sale of photographs printed 
from what he claims to be the original negative. 

However far the " Silent City" fails in having a scien- 
450 



PHANTOM HISTORY. 45 1 

tific reason for its existence the fact remains that it has ex- 
cited and still excites as much interest as any one feature of 
scenic Alaska. Only quite recently additional import has 
been added to its phantom history by the return of Prince 
Luigi of Italy, who, besides having made the ascent of 
Mt. St. Elias to its very summit, claims also to have had 
vouchsafed him a grand view of the spectral city, a most 
exquisite yet awe-inspiring picture impanelled on the 
sky far above the fleeting clouds. As the story runs the 
image is so perfect and so clear that the astonished be- 
holder can scarcely realize that it is not indeed a real 
city that lies outstretched before him. He sees well-de- 
fined houses and great public buildings and the lofty spires 
of churches, even people moving about, and trees and 
well-arranged parks. But within a brief half-hour this city 
grows dim and vanishes, and no wonder that the be- 
holder rubs his eyes, and can scarce believe his senses. 

But not often does nature record this wonderful vision. 
It has flitted before the eyes of but few men. In many 
years it has been seen but by a handful of travelers and 
explorers. 

The vision rarely lasts more than half an hour, when 
it suddenly vanishes into the mists that begot it, 
leaving the astonished observer in a state of wonder and 
awe, feeling that he must have been in a dream or have 
been fooled by some trick of the imagination or of the 
optic nerve. 

Prince Luigi' s party consisted of a number of scientific 
men, including Lieutenant Umberto Cagni of the Italian 



452 PERFECT IMAGES. 

Army, who made all the meteorological observations; 
Mr. Vittario Sella, a famous amatuer photographer ; 
Dr. Filippo de Fillippi, surgeon of the party ; and Cava- 
lieri Francesco Gonella, president of the Alpine Club of 
Truin. 

It was in the early morning of July 7th last. The 
Prince and his party were returning from the ocean with 
supplies, when suddenly a city appeared before their 
astonished eyes. They had not noted it before ; they 
knew that no city existed at this spot, and yet so per- 
fect was the image that it was hard to disbelieve in its 
reality. 

"It required no effort of imagination," said one of the 
Prince's party, "to liken the vision to a city. It was so 
distinct that it required instead strong faith to believe 
that it was not what it appeared to be. It remained a 
perfect image for thirty minutes and then faded away, 
while in its place appeared a rocky ridge." The Prince 
and his party were singularly fortunate in having this 
vision vouchsafed to them, for its appearance is like 
angel's visits, few and far between. No mirage that 
appears anywhere on the face of the globe is so distinct 
in its outlines, and it is perhaps well that the image did 
not last long ; otherwise the weary traveler and ex- 
plorer might follow in the direction of this will-o'-the- 
wisp-like city for days, in the hope of securing com- 
fortable accommodations within its walls. 

The Prince and his party were so overcome by sur- 
prise that unfortunately they did not secure a photograph 
of the "Silent City." 



A SPECTRE CITY. 455 

Mr. L. B. French, who thinks he saw the city outlined 
in the Willoughby picture, tells of his experience in the 
following words : 

"About five o'clock in the afternoon of an early July 
day we suddenly perceived, rising above the glacier, 
over in the direction of Mount Fairweather, what at first 
appeared to be a thin, misty cloud. It soon became 
clearer, and we distinctly saw a spectre city moving to- 
ward us. We could plainly see houses, well-defined 
streets and trees. Here and there rose tall spires over 
huge buildings, which appeared to be ancient mosques 
or cathedrals. 

"It was a large city, one which would contain at least 
one hundred thousand inhabitants. I have seen Mil- 
waukee miraged over Lake Michigan, and this city ap- 
peared considerably larger than that. It did not look 
like a modern city — more like an ancient European city. 
I noticed particularly the immense height of the spires. 
Of course we were much excited. The Indians who 
were with us were overcome with superstitious fear and 
ran away. We had cameras, and separated in order to 
take it from different points of view. By the time we 
reached points of vantage it had grown fainter and soon 
disappeared. I should say the spectacle lasted about 
twenty-five minutes." 

Minor W. Bruce, in his narrative of his trip up the 
Alaskan coast, says in this connection : 

"Two years previous to my arrival at Juneau, Pro- 
fessor Willoughby had been exhibiting a negative of a 



454 A PICTURE OF THE CITY. 

picture which he said he had succeeded in taking of a 
city which appeared above the face of the glacier in the 
longest days of each year, and which was brought to 
his attention by the natives, who called it the 'Silent City.' 
He procured a camera, and in three successive years 
made the journey in a canoe with natives, and each time 
was able to make an exposure, but the plate that had 
been exposed the third year proved, upon development, 
to be the only one that contained a picture of the city. 
It was a weird-looking negative and, contemplating it 
while the professor told the story with the utmost ear- 
nestness and sincerity, one could not but be interested 
and inclined to believe it to be true. He said that the 
city always appeared as if suspended in the air, just in 
front of the Fairweather rangre of mountains. The 
atmosphere was so clear that the peaks many miles to 
the north were distinctly seen, and every ridge and wal- 
low and curve of the icy crust that enveloped them 
could not have been more clearly defined had they been 
but a stone's throw away. While asleep in his tent 
one morning, a native called to him excitedly to get 
up ; and upon looking to the north he saw a strange- 
looking object hanging over the sides of the mountain, 
and following the direction of a stream or glow of light 
which seemed to radiate from the range squarely down 
upon the glaciers at the head of the bay. Gradually it 
became more distinct, and soon assumed the appearance 
of a city of immense proportions, stretching out into the 
distance until its furthermost limits were lost to view. 



THE VISION MOVES AWAY. 455 

The style of architecture was new to him. Buildings of 
massive dimensions extended in solid and unbroken 
blocks as far as the eye could reach. The solemn walls 
of cathedrals arose almost to the skies, and his imagina- 
tion reveled in silvery music, chanted to a chorus of 
tinkling bells, that was wafted out from the frescoed 
aisles through the openings of gorgeously painted win- 
dows. The entire limits of the city were confined within 
a halo of light, dense, yet transparent, pouring its soft 
glow upon roof and wall and window in glorious trans- 
formation. To the right and left ranges of mountains, 
covered with the garb of winter, formed the background. 
The tops of buildings, and the spires of churches, ap- 
peared to pierce its ghostly robes, yet not one breath 
of their chilled presence extended within the portals of 
the city. Again, he seemed to hear the bells from the 
steeples of a hundred churches mingling sweet and 
happy melody, yet, within the whole length and breadth 
of this boundless city, not one soul could be seen. Not 
even a shadow darkened the light for an instant. All 
was silent as the grave when suddenly the vision began 
to move away. Its glories and grandeur lured him 
with a fascination which he could not resist. But as he 
walked forward, it seemed to recede with even pace. 
Gradually, though he quickened his step to get within 
the silent portals before it was too late, it was wafted 
into space and finally lost to view. 

"In the summer of 1889 I accompanied Professor Wil- 
loughby to Glacier Bay and spent six weeks in exploring 



456 BIRCH-BARK RECORDS. 

the glaciers and surrounding country. Anxious to see 
the spot where he claimed to have witnessed this won- 
derful sight, although, I feel free to say, I did not live in 
very high expectations of gazing upon the silent city. 
One day we ascended the side of a mountain to a level 
space affording a glorious view of the whole bay. He 
took me to a pile of rocks, laid carefully one upon the 
other, to a height of perhaps five feet. Slowly he com- 
menced to throw off the rocks until an opening was made 
in the center, and inserting his arm, he drew out what 
appeared to be a scroll or book made from several leaves 
of birch bark. It was badly mildewed and upon unroll- 
ing it a pencil fell to the ground. The half-dozen pages 
looked bright, and contained a record, stating that the 
object of three trips made to this locality, in as many dif- 
ferent years, was to secure a photograph of the city. 

"During the six weeks I spent with Professor Willough- 
by, the relations between us, in camp and in our travels, 
were such as to encourage an exchange of confidences 
on many subjects, and although the subject of the silent 
city and mirages was often referred to, he never by word 
or implication gave me any reason to think that his story 
was other than a true one." 

Some months ago President Jordan began an investi- 
gation into the merits of the "Silent City" and after 
going over the ground wrote a paper for one of the 
scientific monthlies in which he gave it as his opinion that 
the Willoughby negative was a poor impression of Bristol, 
England. 



ILLUSION PERFECT. 457 

Mirages are caused in this way : — The density of the 
air generally diminishes with the height; rays of light that 
proceed obliquely from an object then become more and 
more horizontal, but generally pass away into space. 
When the density of the air diminishes with the height 
with unusual rapidity, as when the air is cooler, the 
nearer it is to the earth, then the ascending rays may 
become quite horizontal, and then bend downward to- 
ward the earth, reaching the earth at a far distant point 
from the object reflected. 

The observer at that point sees distant objects at an 
unusual elevation, or sees above the true horizon erect 
images of objects which may or may not be beyond 
the horizon. If the layer of air near the earth be uni- 
formly dense, as in the cold air over a frozen sea, and a 
warmer stratum lie above it in which the density rapidly 
diminishes, so that the rays are brought back to the earth, 
the rays cross one another in the hot stratum, and the 
observer sees objects upside down. 

In the desert of Sahara and other arid deserts the con- 
ditions are reversed, for the air is hottest near the hot 
sand. Skylight rays descending become bent upward. 
The mirage is not inverted and the illusion is often per- 
fect. 



CHAPTER XXI. 



THE GLACIERS. 



Wonders of the northern territory — The great ice fields — The formation and action 
of glaciers — What is known of the remarkable Malaspina glacier — Some freaks 
of nature which man studies with intense interest — Some mysteries in the frozen 
land which he cannot solve — The Muir, Guyot, Seward and other glaciers. 



P 



ERH APS no single feature in Alaska, aside from its 
gold treasure, has excited so much human interest 
and investigation as its glaciers. The Malaspina, Muir, and 
other less well-known Alaskan glaciers are regarded in 
the scientific world as among the most remarkable works 
of nature of this class on earth. 

The name glacier is one given to a mass of ice, having 
its origin in the hollows of great mountains where per- 
petual snow accumulates but which makes its way down 
toward the lower valleys, where it gradually melts, until 
it terminates exactly where the melting, due to the con- 
tact with the warm air, earth, and rain of the valley 
compensates for the bodily descent of the ice from the 
snow reservoirs of the higher mountains. Of the manner 
in which glaciers are formed and moved and disappear 
much has been learned by the scientist in a general way, 
but much of the story of their work in the ages which are 
gone, of the stupendous force which they exert on the 
earth's surface, is yet to be learned. 

A recent report to the government on the Mt. St. 

459 



460 



THE MALASPINA. 



Elias district gives some interesting statistics of the great 
Malaspina glacier which may be regarded as the type of 
these ice bodies called Piedmont glaciers. They are so 
called because formed at the foot of mountains by the 
union and expansion of ice streams from the valleys of 
adjacent highlands. The glaciers flowing south from the 
great neve fields on the mountains of the St. Elias sys- 
tem, for full one hundred miles west of Yakutat Bay, 
expand on reaching the flat lands between the base of 
the mountains and the sea, and unite to form a vast lake 
of ice, which has been named in honor of Malaspina. 

The glacier extends with unbroken continuity from 
Yakutat Bay, seventy miles westward, and has an 
average breadth of from twenty to twenty-five miles. 
Many of the glaciers are vastly greater in dimensions, 
but the formation and movements of this one, as known 
to man, will serve to show the general laws. The area 
is about that of the State of Delaware, or a little larger. 
It is a vast, nearly horizontal plateau of ice. The general 
elevation of its surface, at some distance from its outer 
border, is fifteen hundred feet. The central portion is 
free from moraines, or dirt of any kind, but it is rough 
and broken by thousands of crevasses. Its surface is a 
broad, desolate prairie, not unlike the rolling lands of the 
Western plains. 

The Malaspina consists of three principal lobes, each 
one formed by the expansion of a large tributary ice 
stream. The largest has an eastward flow toward 
Yakutat Bay, and is supplied mainly by another smaller 



THE THREE LOBES. 



46I 



glacier, known as the Seward. The next lobe to the west 
is the result of the Agassiz glacier. Its current is toward 
the southwest. Still a third lobe lies between the Chaix 
and Robinson hills, and is supplied by the Tyndall and 
Guyot glaciers. Its central current is southward. 

The Seward lobe melts away before reaching Yaku- 
tat Bay, but its southern margin has been eaten into by 
the ocean, forming the Sitkagi bluffs. The Agassiz lobe 
is complete, and is fringed in all its extremity by wood 
moraines. The other lobe pushes boldly out into the 
ocean, where it breaks suddenly, forming the well- 
known Icy Cape. The waves undermine these great 
ice cliffs and piece after piece is deposited in the ocean 
to sail away in the form of bergs. This is the only in- 
stance known in Alaska where a glacier advances into 
the open ocean. The ice cliff at its extremity is one of 
the finest specimens of its kind to be seen in the world, 
and furnishes to the tourist one of the most beautiful 
siehts on the Pacific coast. 

On the northern border of the Malaspina glacier, but 
below the line of perpetual snow, where the great 
plateau has a gentle slope, the melting surface gives the 
origin to hundreds of rivulets, which course along in 
channels of clear ice, until they reach a crevasse, where 
they plunge down to the drainage beneath. On a sum- 
mer day, when the sun is well above the horizon, and 
where the surface of the glacier is inclined, the rush of 
the water may be heard constantly, but as soon as the 
shadows of evening fall the flow ceases. These streams 



462 



THE STREAMS. 



are always of clear, sparkling water, and it is seldom 
their channels contain debris. Where the surface is 
level and broken frequently by crevasses, these streams 
are absent though pools of water are often found. 

The moulins in which the streams disappear are well- 
like holes of great depth. They are seldom straight, as 
the water plunging into them from one side washes away 
the other. In descending the water is washed from side 
to side, increasing the irregularity of the wells. A deep 
roar coming from the hidden chambers to which the 
moulins lead frequently tells that large bodies of water 
are rushing along in ice caves underneath. The Stikines, 
hearing the mysterious roars and crashes from within at 
Le Conte Bay, believed it to be the home of the Thunder 
Bird, or Hutli, as the native tongue has it. They thought 
the noises were caused by the flapping of his wings. 
All Thlingits believe that in the beginning the mountains 
were living creatures,* grandly embodied spirits whom 
they all worshiped. The glaciers are the children of the 
mountains, and the parents hold them in their arms, dip 
their feet in the sea, cover them with a warm snow 
blanket in the winter and scatter rocks and earth over 
them in summer to protect them from the hot sun, 
Sitkh is the general name for ice, and its whispered sibi- 
lants suggest the Indian horror of cold. They have an 
idea of a hell of ice instead of fire, a place of everlasting 
and intense cold, where those go who fail to do right in 
life. 

Sitkh too Yehk is their ice spirit, an invisible evil 



THE ICE SPIfelT. 



463 



power, whose icy breath is death and who manifests 
himself in the Arctic winds which sweep over the glaciers. 
His voice is heard in the crash of falling bergs and the 
crunching of the ice floes. When the ice winds are still 
and the glacier is quiet the evil spirit is believed to be 
sleeping or wandering in search of mischief in the laby- 
rinths of ice in the interior. The natives are careful to 
be quiet, fearful of waking the disagreeable one and 
refrain even from striking the icebergs with their canoe 
paddles for fear trouble may result. When they have 
to journey across the glaciers they pray for mercy of the 
ice spirit with great ceremony and many chants. The 
seals are regarded as children of the glacier and proof 
against all the evils arising therefrom. Under the gla- 
cier it is believed that man-faced seals dwell, and much 
care is taken to propitiate these. 

In the lower portion of the glacier, where the ice has 
been deeply melted, and especially where large crevasses 
occur, the abandoned tunnels made by englacial streams 
are sometimes revealed. These tunnels are frequently 
ten or fifteen feet high, and occasionally one may pass 
through them, from one depression in the glacier to 
another. In some instances they are floored with 
rounded stone and other debris. As the melting pro- 
gresses this material is concentrated at the surface as a 
moraine. 

The ice in various portions of the glacier is formed of 
alternating blue and white bands, which is the rule in 
glacial ice generally. The blue bands are of compact 



464 



THE BANDED STRUCTURE. 



ice, while the white ones are filled with air cavities. This 
banded structure has been the subject of much study, 
and, as shown by Professor Tyndall, is of the nature of 
the slatey cleavage in rocks, and results from the press- 
ure to which the ice has been subjected in flowing through 
narrow channels. The presence of this structure in a 
vast ice body, like the Malaspina glacier, which is not 
confined in narrow valleys, but has room to spread in 
all directions, raises the question whether the cause may 
not be looked for in other directions. Nearly parallel 
with the blue and white layers, but crossing them at low 
angles, there are frequently bands of hard blue ice, two 
or three inches thick, and several hundred feet long, 
which have a secondary origin, and are the result of ice 
freezing in fissures. A medial line may sometimes be 
traced in these veins, as in certain banded ore veins, 
suggesting that the fissures have been filled by water 
freezing to their sides. There are also dirt bands on 
the glaciers, especially along the borders adjacent to 
the marginal moraines, which are probably the out- 
cropping edges of the old dust-covered surfaces. The 
rapid melting of the surface produces many curious 
phenomena, which are by no means peculiar to the 
Malaspina, but common to ice bodies, especially those 
beneath the perpetual snow line. The long belts of 
stone and dirt forming the moraines protect the ice 
beneath from the action of the sun and air, while 
adjacent surfaces waste away. The result of this differ- 
ent melting is that the moraines become elevated ridges 



STEEP RIDGES. 



465 



of ice. The forms of these ridges vary according to the 
amount and character of the debris resting upon them. 
In places they are steep and narrow, reaching a height 
of two hundred feet. From a distance they look like 
solid masses of debris and remind one of railroad em- 
bankments. The sides are extremely difficult to climb, 
owing to the coating of loose stone, which rolls and 
crumbles away beneath the feet. 

The largest bowlders are the first to be dislodged by 
the melting ice, and they roll to the foot and form a 
coarse belt along the bottom. In this way a curious 
assortment of debris, according to size, is distributed 
along the sides of the ridges. In time the narrow belts 
of large bowlders at the foot become elevated, and again 
roll down to take their natural place. Rocks rolling 
down the steep banks are reduced constantly in size, 
and finally the fragments are reduced to sand and clay. 
When the debris is reduced to this condition it is washed 
away by the surface streams, and so the work goes on 
through the ages. Not all the turbidity of the sub-gla- 
cial stream can be charged to the grinding of the glacier 
on the rocks on which it rests, as some of it certainly 
comes from the crushing of the surface moraines, on the 
outer border of the glacier, during their frequent changes 
of position, but the amount of glacial silt originating in 
this way must be small. 

Isolated blocks of stone lying on the glacier, when of 
sufficient size not to be warmed through by the sun's heat 
in a single day, also protect the ice beneath, and retain 
30 



466 



GLACIAL TABLES. 



this position as the adjacent surface melts, so as to rest 
on pedestals frequently several feet high. These ele- 
vated blocks are usually flat, angular masses, sometimes 
twenty feet in diameter, and have received the name of 
glacial tables. Owing to the greater effect of the sun 
on the southern side of the columns, they usually lean 
in that direction, and eventually the bowlder slides off in 
that way. No sooner has the block been deposited than 
the old process begins again ; it is elevated and once 
more dropped to the south. In the course of time the 
bowlders are reduced to fragments. 

While large objects lying on the surface of the glacier 
are elevated on pedestals in this manner, small ones, 
and especially those of a dark color, becoming heated 
by the sun melt the ice beneath and sink. Over large 
portions of the Malaspina glacier there are little wells, 
filled with water and with objects at the bottom. It is 
curious to note the character of some of the objects 
found at the bottom of these wells. A leaf is often 
found there as well as insects and fish. 

Above the perpetual snow line dark objects become 
heated and melt the snow about them, but do not form 
wells. The water thus formed is immediately absorbed 
in the surrounding porous matter. As the melting pro- 
gresses, a conical depression is formed which has a 
striking resemblance to the pit holes made by sand- 
dragons in loose sand, but are often several feet deep. 
When small stones and dirt are o-athered on the surface 
of a glacier, or on a larger scale when moulins become 






SAND CONES. 



467 



filled with fine debris and the adjacent surface is de- 
pressed by melting, the material thus acts as do concen- 
trated large bowlders, protecting the underlying ice. 
But as the gravel rises in reference to the adjacent sur- 
face the outer portion rolls down from the pedestal on 
all sides, and the result is that a sharp cone of ice is 
formed, having a sheet of gravel and dirt over its sur- 
face. These sand cones sometimes reach to a height of 
twelve feet, and form, over large areas, a' conspicuous 
and characteristic feature of the glacier. They are of 
the same character as the debris pyramids, so common 
on the stagnant borders of many glaciers of Alaska, ex- 
cept that they are composed of finer materials, and, like 
the glacial tables, are short lived. The melting of the 
ice about them causes the debris on the surface to slide 
farther and farther away, so that finally it is unable to 
shelter the ice beneath. The fragments then act inde- 
pendently, and either protect the ice or, becoming warm, 
sink into it, according to size and color. In this way the 
sand cones disappear, only to form again when the debris 
gathers in other depressions. 

The surface of the Malaspina glacier, over a large 
area, is covered with a coral-like crust formed by the 
alternate melting and freezing of the surface. The 
crevasses in this portion of the great plateau are seldom 
of large size, and owing to the melting of their margins 
are broad at the surface and contract rapidly downward. 
They are in fact mere gashes ten or twelve feet deep, 
and are apparently only remnants of large crevasses 



468 



THE SURFACE 



formed in the mountains. Deeper crevasses appear at 
certain localities about the border of the glacier, where 
the ice at the margin falls away from the main mass, but 
these are seldom conspicuous, as the ice is heavily covered 
with debris and the openings fill rapidly with material 
therefrom. The surface of the glacier, level or other- 
wise, is generally a fair indication of the condition of the 
ground on which it rests. Where the larger tributaries 
of the Malaspina flow in there are great ice falls, caused 
by steep descents of the earth beneath. These falls are 
at the lower limit of perpetual snow, and are only fully 
revealed when the melting has reached its maximum and 
the winter snows have not begun to accumulate. 

From a commanding point overlooking the glacier one 
sees that the central expanse of clear white ice is bordered 
on the south by a broad, dark band, formed by bowl- 
ders and stones. Outside this, and forming a belt con- 
centric with it, is a forest-covered area, in many places 
several miles wide. This forest grows on the moraine 
resting on the ice of the glacier. In surveying the 
glacier, by far the greatest portion is clear white ice, but 
in crossing it on foot, the difficulties encountered in the 
forest make one think that its area is greater than it 
actually is. The moraines not only cover all the outer 
portion of the glacier, but stream off from the mountain 
spurs that project into it from the north. One of these 
spurs starts from the Samovar hills, crosses the entire 
breadth of the glacier, and joins the marginal moraine on 
its southern border. This long train of stones and 



MORAINES FORM. 



469 



bowlders is really a highly compound medial moraine, 
formed at the junction of the expanded extremities of 
the Seward and Agassiz glaciers. 

All of the glaciers which feed the great ice sheet below 
are above the snow line, and the debris they carry only 
appears on the surface after the ice descends to the 
region where the annual waste exceeds the supply. The 
stones and dirt are then concentrated at the surface, 
owing to the melting of the ice that contains them. 
This is the history of nearly all moraines. The Malas- 
pina glacier in retreating has left irregular hillocks of 
coarse debris, which are now forest-covered, but these 
deposits have not the character of marginal moraines. 
They indicate a general retreat without prolonged halts. 
The heaps of debris left as the ice front retreats have a 
general parallelism with the margin of the glacier, and 
are pitted with lake basins, but only their higher portions 
are exposed above the general sheet of assorted debris 
spread out of the streams draining the glacier. 

A peculiar and interesting feature of the moraine on 
the stagnant border of the Malaspina glacier is fur- 
nished by the lakelets that appear everywhere upon it. 
These are found in great numbers both in the forest- 
covered portion and in the outer border of the barren 
moraine. They are usually rudely circular, and have 
steep walls of dirty ice which slope toward the water at 
high angles, but are undercut at the bottom, so that the 
basins in vertical cross section have an hour-glass form. 
The walls are frequently from fifty to one hundred 



.j TURBID WATERS. 

feet high, and not seldom are nearly perpendicular. 
The lakes are usually one hundred feet in diameter, 
but larger ones appear. Their waters are always 
turbid, owing to the mud which is carried into them . 
by avalanches and streams of water that trickle from . 
their sides. The rattle of the stones falling into I 
them is a common sound when the air is warm or when i 
it is raining. The crater-like walls inclosing the lakes 
are seldom of uniform height, but frequently rise into 
pinnacles. Between the pinnacles there are occasion- • 
ally low saddles, through which the lake overflows. The : 
stones and dirt which fall into them in the end fill up 
the space and force the water out. As the general sur- 
face of the glacier is lowered by melting, the partially 
filled lakes gradually disappear, and their floors, owing j 
to the accumulations of debris on them, protecting as itt 
does the ice beneath, become elevated above the sur- • 
rounding surface in the same manner that glacial tables 
are formed. The debris covering these elevations slides •> 
down the sides, as the melting progresses, and finally a 
rugged pyramid of ice, covered by a thin coating of I 
debris, occupies the place of the former lake. These 
pyramids sometimes are sixty or seventy feet high, and \ 
usually are conical in shape. They resemble sand] 
cones, but are much greater in size and covered with 
coarser debris. 

Like the lakes, to which they owe their origin, these 
pyramids are confined to the stagnant portions of the- 
glacier and play an important part in the breaking up 



THE BROKEN STONES. 47 ! 

of marginal moraines. Owing to the sliding of the 
bowlders and stones into the lakelets and their subse- 
quent fall from the sides of the pyramids, they are 
broken and crushed so that the outer portion of the 
glacier, where the process has been going on longest, 
is covered with finer debris and contains more clay and 
sand than the inner portions. 

Just how the holes containing glacial lakelets originate 
it is difficult to say, but their formation seems to be in- 
itiated by the melting back of the sides of crevasses. 
Breaks, in the general sheet of debris covering the gla- 
cier, expose the ice beneath to the action of the sun and 
rain which causes it to melt and the crevasses to broaden. 
The openings become partially filled with water and the 
lakelets are formed. The waves wash the debris from 
the ice about the margin of the lakelets, thus exposing 
it to the direct attack of the water, which melts it more 
rapidly than the upper portions of the slopes are melted 
by the sun and rain. It is in this manner that the charac- 
teristic hour-glass shape originates. The lakelets are 
confined to the outer, or stagnant portion of the glacier, 
for the reason that the motion in the ice, where the pres- 
sure from the highlands is greatest, would produce cre- 
vasses through which the water would escape. Where 
the lakelets occur in great numbers, it is evident that the 
ice must be nearly or quite stationary, otherwise the 
basins would not exist for years as they do. The lake- 
lets and the resulting pyramids are the most character-, 
istic feature of the outer border of the glacier. 



472 



VEGETATION. 



The outer, and consequently the older portions, of the 
moraines are covered with vegetation which in places 
has all the characteristics of old forests. It consists 
principally of spruce, cottonwood, alder, a great variety 
of small shrubs, and some rank ferns. This vegetation 
grows from the accumulation of dirt on the top of the 
ice. The ice layer beneath this surface covering is not 
infrequently one thousand feet thick. The forest- 
covered portion of the Malaspina is estimated to be 
from twenty to twenty-five square miles in area. 

There are lakes at the extremity of the mountain 
spurs extending into the glacier that furnish another 
interesting subject for investigation. Where the rocks of 
the spurs touch the ice they become heated, causing the 
frozen mass to melt, and thus depressions are formed, 
which are enlarged by a flow of water through them, 
until a heavy covering of debris protects the ice from 
further encroachments. The lines of drainage on each 
side of the spur converge and form a lake at the ex- 
tremity, from which the water usually escapes through a 
tunnel. Typical lakes of this character are the ones 
at Terrace Point and on the south side of the Chaix 
Hills. 

A glacier, in flowing past the base of a mountain, fre- 
quently obstructs the drainage of lateral valleys, and 
causes lakes to form. These usually find outlets, as in 
case of the marginal lakes, through subterranean pas- 
sages, and are filled or emptied according to the condi- 
tion of the latter, obstructed or open. The conditions 



TERRACE BUILDING. 473 

which lead to the formation of these lakes are unstable, 
and the records which they leave in the form of terraces, 
deltas, and so on, are very irregular. When streams 
empty into one of these lakes, deltas and horizontally 
stratified lake beds are formed, as in ordinary water 
bodies, but as the lakes are subject to many fluctuations, 
the elevations at which the records are made are con- 
tinually changing, and in instances where the retaining 
ice body is constantly diminishing may occupy a wide 
vertical interval. 

The terraces left by streams flowing between moraine- 
covered glaciers and precipitous mountain slopes are 
peculiar. The channels become filled with debris that slides 
down the mountain slopes. This material is at first angu- 
lar in form, but when brought within reach of the stream 
becomes rounded. On the margin of the channel adja- 
cent to the glacier there is usually a heavy deposit of 
unassorted debris, which rests partly upon the ice and 
forms the actual border of the stream. When the glacier 
is lowered by melting the stream abandons its former 
channel, and repeats the process of terrace building at a 
lower level. 

The material in the Malaspina forming the terraces is 
largely a blue clay, filled with both angular and rounded 
stones and bowlders, but its elevated border is almost 
entirely of angular debris. The drainage from the 
mountain slope above the terrace is obstructed by the 
elevated border, and swamps and lagoons are formed 
back of it> In the material forming the terraces tree 



474 



THE DRAINAGE. 



trunks occur frequently, and growing upon its surface 
there is a forest of large spruce trees. 

The drainage of the Malaspina glacier is subglacial. 
There is no surface drainage except in a few localities, 
chiefly on its northern border, where there is a slight 
surface slope, but even in such places the streams are 
short, and soon plunge into a crevasse and join the 
drainage beneath. On the lower portions of the Alpine 
glaciers, tributary to the Malaspina, there are sometimes 
small streams coursing along in ice channels, but these 
are short lived. On the borders of the tributary glaciers 
there are frequently important streams flowing between 
the ice and the adjacent mountain slope, but where these 
come down to the Malaspina they disappear in tunnels. 

Along the southern margin of the glacier there are 
hundreds of streams pouring out of the escarpment 
formed by the border of the glacier, or rising like great 
fountains from the gravel and bowlders at the base. All 
of these streams are brown and heavy with sediment. 
One of the largest streams draining the glacier is the 
Yahste. This river rises in two principal branches at 
the base of the Chaix Hills, and flows through a tunnel 
eight miles long, emerging at the border of the glacier a 
swift brown flood, one hundred feet wide and fifteen or 
twenty feet deep. The stream, after its subglacial course, 
spreads out into many branches, and is building up an 
alluvial fan, which has invaded and buried several acres 
of forests. On the border of the glacier facing Yakutat 
Bay, the flow of the ice is eastward, but its margin is 



THE MOVEMENT. .*- 

stagnant, and instead of forming a bold, continuous 
escarpment, it ends irregularly and with a frontal slope. 

When the streams from the north reach the glacier 
they invariably flow into tunnels and disappear from 
view. The entrances to the tunnels are frequently high 
arches, and the streams flowing into them carry great 
quantities of sand and gravel. About the southern and 
eastern border, where the streams emerge, the arches of 
the tunnels are low, owing to the accumulation of debris 
which obstructs their discharge. In some instances the 
obstruction is so great that the water rises in a vertical 
shaft, in order to reach the surface, and rushes up under 
heavy pressure. The sand and gravel brought out is 
well-rounded and is deposited in alluvial cones. Beside 
being overloaded when they emerge, the streams receive 
large amounts of debris from the moraine-covered ice 
cliffs adjacent. The deposit of the debris through the 
tunnels brings about an obstruction which causes the 
water to run in higher levels, and finally it comes in con- 
tact with the roof, slowly enlarging it upwards. 

Other glaciers of Alaska do not differ materially from 
the Malaspina, though each has received much investiga- 
tion and thought in the scientific world, and there is an 
extensive literature on the subject. 

The movement of glaciers is, as subject for study, one 
of great interest. The most remarkable feature is the 
motion downwards from the neve to the lower valleys. 
The explanation of it is by far the most important appli- 
cation of mechanical physics connected with the subject. 



476 



GRAVITATION THEORY. 



The glacier is formed in the mountains of a mass of snow 
and ice, which is constantly being added to and which 
makes its way down to the lower valleys, where it grad- 
ually melts, until it terminates exactly where the melting, 
due to contact with warmer air, earth, and rain compen- 
sates for the bodily descent of the ice sheet from reser- 
voirs in the highlands within the line of perpetual snow. 
It usually protrudes into valleys far below the latter 
limit, and terminates amidst a wilderness of bowlders 
borne down upon its surface and deposited as the ice 
melts. These are the moraines spoken of in connection 
with the Malaspina glacier heretofore. 

Prior to 1842 two theories of glacier movement had 
been maintained. One of these is known as the gravi- 
tation theory and the other the dilatation. Both suppose 
that the motion of the ice takes place by its sliding 
bodily over its rocky bed, but they differ as to the force 
which urges it over obstacles opposed by friction and the 
irregularities of the surface over which it moves. 
Under the gravitation theory it is claimed that the frozen 
masses, carried along by the slope of the bed on which 
they rest, disengaged by water from the adhesion, which 
they might otherwise contract, to the bottom, must grad- 
ually slide and descend along the declivities of the 
valleys or mountain slopes which they cover. It is this 
slow but continual sliding of the icy masses on their 
inclined bases which carries them down into the lower 
valleys, and which replenishes continually the stock of ice 
in valleys, some of which are warm enough to produce 



DILATATION THEORY. .77 

luxuriant vegetation. Very many objections have been 
urged to this theory. It is evident that those who believe 
in it regard the glacier as composed of an accumulation 
of fragments instead of a great mass, throughout which 
the fissures and crevasses are in slight proportion to the 
whole ; also, that they attribute to the subglacial waters 
a kind and amount of action in removing the friction 
that they do not possess. The main objection, however, 
to the gravitation theory is that a sliding motion, of the 
kind supposed, when once commenced, would be con- 
stantly accelerated by gravity and an avalanche would 
result. The small slope of most glacier valleys and the 
irregularity of the bounding wall are also objections. 

The dilatation theory disposes of the want of sufficient 
moving power to drag along the mass by calling in the 
well-known force with which water expands on its con- 
version into ice. The glacier being traversed by innu- 
merable capillary fissures, and being in summer satu- 
rated with water in all its parts, it was natural to invoke 
the freezing action of the night to convert this water 
into ice, and by the amount of its expansion to urge the 
glacier onward in the direction of its greatest slope. In 
answer to this argument it has been claimed that, even 
in the height of summer, those parts of the glacier that 
move the fastest are never reduced below the freezing 
point, and that even in the most favorable cases of noc- 
turnal radiation, producing congelation at the surface, it 
cannot penetrate above a few inches into the interior. 

It was some time before observers took up the problem 



478 



RESULTS OF OBSERVATION. 



of discovering just how fast and in what manner glaciers 
moved, but in 1842 Forbes did this. His observations 
were carried on with the aid of all the scientific appa- 
ratus at hand at that day, and he thoroughly satisfied 
himself that the motion was continuous and tolerably 
uniform — that it was not by jerks. He also ascertained 
that the motion was greatest toward the centre of the 
glacier and slowest at the sides. It was also found that 
the rate of motion varied at different points of the length 
of the same glacier, being greatest, on the whole, where 
the inclination was most marked. As the seasons ad- 
vanced he noted changes in the rate of motion of the 
same part of the ice and connected it by a direct rela- 
tion with the temperature of the air. Last of all, it was 
discovered that the surface moved faster than the ice 
nearer the bottom of the bed. The observations re- 
sulted in the theory that " a glacier is an imperfect fluid 
or viscous body, which is urged down slopes of certain 
inclination by the mutual pressure of its parts." 

The glacier problem cannot, even to-day, be consid- 
ered solved entirely, but enough is known now to make 
the further investigation promising. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

HUNTING AND FISHING. 

"Wild Country for the Huntsman — Big Game in the Chasms and on the 
Mountains — Opportunities of the Fishermen — Mallards and Canvas- 
back Duck — Price of Game in the Sitka Market — Native Alaskans not 
Sportsmen — Mosquitoes and the Bruins — Suicide Rather than Die by 
the Attacks of Insects — Nicholas Huley the Hero of a Fine Bear Story 
— Native Huntsmen. 

FOR all those who hunt and fish for pleasure, not for 
pelf, for those who love nature in its grandest 
moods, there is not a land anywhere under heaven like 
unto Alaska. There are countless waterways, lined 
with towering mountains, upon whose summits the snow 
rests eternally, like a mantle woven from threads of 
silver. Gracefully it is draped over their giant shoulders, 
as if they were attired in bridal garments for a marriage 
above the clouds. Sharp and distinct, and cut as straight 
and clearly as a furrow in a wheat field, the dark green 
of the forests meets the snowy border, marking the line 
where vegetation ceases. Thence downward to the very 
verge of the sea, great spruce trees and hemlocks and 
cedars and hanging mosses, a jungle of small growths, 
with the rank luxuriance of a tropic clime. Then these 
mountains of stone and snow and verdure are rent from 

479 



4S0 ANIMAIy LIFK. 

base to sky-line in great canons and valleys, where the 
shadows linger eternally, and out of them come tumbling 
in mad haste the green waters of the melting glaciers. 

Populate these shadowy densities with bear and deer 
and wolf and lynx and mountain sheep. Follow a trail 
from the sea margin to some inland lakes, or toward 
some mountain top — the path will be as smoothly worn 
by the feet of wild beasts, as a cowpath through a 
meadow, and if you have a spark of the sportsman's in- 
stinct alive within your breast it will burn into a flame. 

The streams which reach the sea are alive with salmoi 
trout — big, gamey fish, who strike voraciously at any bait, 
and fight for freedom with a vim and dash and strength 
that test the skill and tire the stout arms of the most ex- 
pert and stalwart fishermen. 

There are many narrow defiles, precipitous on either 
side, which run landward from the ocean, broadening out 
into great bays, shut in by mountains so tall that theii 
tops are lost in cloudland. In season these are the 
abiding place of mallards and canvasbacks and blue- 
winged teal and thousands of strange aquatic birds. 

The Sitka market is always overstocked with game. 
Venison sells usually there at four cents per pound. 
The deer are not large, but their flesh is of delicious 
flavor. The duck are not so good because of their fish- 
like taste'. The fish are always fresh, of infinite variety, 
and, if properly cooked and served, are fine eating. 
If one is too lazy or too busy to catch them, they ma] 
be had at the wharf for the asking. These are oc- 



IMPROVIDENT HUNTERS. 48 1 

casionally varied by bear meat, which many do not 
like. 

The native hunters are improvident. They persist in 
killing deer in and out of season, solely for their skins, 
which they dispose of at the trading stores. A great 
number are slaughtered annually in the vicinity of Sitka, 
whose carcasses are left where they fall — feasts for the 
eagles and ravens. This is true of other parts of the 
territory. 

An official utterance on this wanton destruction of the 
game of the country is found in William Ogelvie's report 
to the Canadian Government in regard to the animal and 
fish found in the Yukon District : — 

" Game is not now so abundant as before mining be- 
gan, and it is difficult, in fact impossible, to get any close 
to the river. The Indians have to ascend the tributary 
streams ten to twenty miles to get anything worth going 
after. Here on the uplands vast herds of caribou still 
wander, and when the Indians encounter a herd they al- 
low very few to escape, even though they do not require 
the meat. When they have plenty they are not at all 
provident, and consequently are often in want when game 
is scarce. They often kill animals, which they know are 
so poor as to be useless for food, just for the love of 
slaughter. 

'An Indian who was with me one day saw two caribou 
passing and wanted me to shoot them. I explained to 
him that we had plenty, and that I would not destroy them 
uselessly, but this did not accord with his ideas. He felt 



482 FOND OF KILLING. , 

displeased because I did not kill them myself or lend hii 
my rifle for the purpose, and remarked in as good Eng- 
lish as he could command: 'I like to kill whenever 
see it.'" 

Baranof Island is noted for its enormous black bears. 
"For a long time after my arrival in the country" says 
one who hunted in these parts "there was rarely a week 
passed that one or more natives were not brought in 
frightfully mangled from fighting these monsters. Many 
of them died, and others were slain outright. They are 
lordly, rollicking rascals, these colossals of the coast 
islands ; counterparts of their Polar brothers, except in 
color, the one a moving midnight, the other an animated 
snowdrift. The sale of breech-loading firearms to the 
natives is prohibited by law. 

" An ancient muzzle-loader and a knife are inefficient 
weapons for attack or defense against these ferocious 
brutes, yet I know several native hunters who have sur- 
vived such contests. They are disfigured of course, 
rarely coming out of the fight scathless, but they carry 
their scars with pride, for in Alaskan heraldry a bear 
token is an honorable distinction." 

In their sequestered haunts the bear roams unmolested 
except by mosquitoes and gnats, those diminutive scourges 
of the highlands and of the lowlands. These settle in 
swamps upon their eyelids, and sting them until they are 
blind and helpless. Then the bear gropes about for 
food and water, and getting mired in some swampy 
place, dies there, while its diminutive and fiend-like 
enemies sing jubilation songs and are happy. 



PESTS ARE PLENTIFUL. 483 

Anyone going to the Klondike must protect them- 
selves against the tortures inflicted by a number of pests. 
The louse, known by the name of "greyback," thrives 
there, as it does in all mining camps in fact. Lice last 
the year round. But the most dangerous pest in summer 
is the enormous mosquito. The Alaskan mosquitoes 
come by the millions, and they are larger in size than 
any known to exist in any other spot on the globe. 
Hundreds upon hundreds of these big mosquitoes will 
light on a man on a summer day when the mercury is 100 
in the shade, and if his face and hands are not protected 
his life is really in danger. The usual protection is a 
wire frame, hood-shaped, and covered with mosquito 
netting, that is placed over the head and strapped to the 
shoulders. The hands are protected with cotton gloves. 
When this mosquito story was told in Denver, an old 
Irishman, standing by, with a querulous look in his eye, 
remarked: " Begob ! if the dom m'skeeters a-are ez 
thick ez that, w'y don't they ate the m'skeeter nittin?" 
After this humorous turn, an old prospector, who had 
been in Alaska, pulled a cob pipe from his mouth, and 
solemnly said : "Well, as sure as I'm sitting here I've 
seen polar bears commit suicide to escape the mosquitoes. 
They simply used their forepaws in see-saw fashion and 
cut their throats." 

John Cudahy's gold mine near Sitka is connected with 
a bear story which is worth telling. It is a true story, 
and does not need embellishment. 

Nicholas Huley, from whom Mr. Cudahy purchased 



484 HULEY'S EXPERIENCE. 

the claim, was a private in the regular army, and came 
to Sitka with the detachment sent up there to take pos- 
session at the time of the transfer of the territory from 
Russia. With him came his wife and two sons. His 
term of enlistment terminated while in Alaska, and being 
satisfied with his surroundings he decided to remain. He 
was a fine-looking, stalwart Irishman, standing six feet 
two inches in his stockings. His sons grew to be as 
stalwart as himself. Nicholas had prospected in many 
places, and among other locations had made one at the 
head of Silver Bay, about fourteen miles from Sitka. 

This location was always a prime favorite with him, 
and he and the boys had done a good deal of work there. 
The property is situated about two miles from the bay 
shore, at an altitude of about 3,000 feet. From the beach 
to the ledge they had constructed a fine trail, and the 
many excursions thither had made of it an easy way. 
Not long before the Cudahy purchase, Nicholas and the 
boys pulled away from the Sitka wharf on one of their 
periodical excursions to the ledge. Besides the ordinary 
camp supplies they carried an old army rifle, a relic of 
Huley's soldiering. In due time they reached the land- 
ing place where the trail began. Here it was discovered 
that they had left their axe behind, and Mr. Huley told 
the boys to pull over to Salmon Creek, two miles away, 
and borrow one of Steve Gee, who was cutting wood 
there. 

"I'll go up the trail. Don't be long, for I'm hungn 
as a bear," said he. 



SURPRISED BY BRUIN. 485 

Then he shouldered the old rifle and disappeared. 
The path wound in and out, a sinuous way, over declivi- 
ties, across rocky shoulders, through heavy timber and 
dense thickets, which were like tunnels of verdure, fol- 
lowing as near as possible an easy grade, but trending 
skyward ultimately. He had no thought of danger, car- 
rying the firearm merely from force of habit, and because, 
on several occasions, he had shot deer by the way. 

In one of the densest thickets, close set with under- 
brush and small young trees, a bear suddenly charged 
on him like a black thunderbolt. 

He had no time to shoot. The beast had closed upon 
him suddenly. It wrenched the gun away, and seized 
him with its great paws, flung him to the ground so 
violently that for a little time he was dazed and uncon- 
scious. When he rallied the huge animal had straddled 
him lengthwise, and was poking his cheeks with its nose, 
as a pig roots in the soil. 

Huley had been told by native hunters that if one could 
be perfectly still and counterfeit death a bear would go 
away. His nerve did not desert him in this awful emer- 
gency. He lay still while the animal continued its 
investigations. Finally the hot, fetid breath exhaled from 
the cruel mouth so close to his became unbearable. He 
kicked him with one foot, being careful to keep the other 
portions of his body immovable. The bear jumped away, 
and looked and listened intently for a time; then it re- 
turned, and began the same rooting process about Huley's 
jowls with its nose. 



486 HE KICKED AGAIN. 

Again Huley kicked him. This time the bear snuffed 
suspiciously, then went a little distance up and down the 
trail, and finally disappeared. Huley lay motionless for 
what to him seemed an eternity, then he arose to his feet 
thankful for the wonderful deliverance, when instantly the. 
copse near him was swept asunder, and the ebony demon 
seized him again. Only for an instant was he conscious, 
and during that interval he says that he experienced 
a sensation of being twirled round and round. The boys 
came up the path, and almost stumbled over the battered 
and bloody body of their father. The bear had torn and 
mangled him fearfully, stripped him of every rag of cloth- 
ing and fled. They carried the inanimate form to the 
boat, and as speedily as possible reached the revenue 
cutter Adams, then moored in the bay. The ship's sur- 
geon found that besides numerous flesh wounds Huley's 
skull was fractured, and one leg was broken. With com- I 
petent treatment and careful nursing he eventually re 
covered. 

When you go to Sitka you will doubtless see a stal- 
wart man, with a decided limp, a badly scarred head and 
face, and an impediment in his speech. You may know 
that is Nicholas Huley, a pioneer, a capitalist, a good 
fellow — and over and above all, a bear-hater. 

The native men <£{ Southeastern Alaska, are of a 
taciturn disposition,/ but they are indefatigable hunters, 
making long journeys into the interior on foot, through 
the mountain defiles and over passes, using their light 
canoes chiefly for crossing rivers and lakes. They build 



THE NATIVE HUNTER. 487 

along their routes of travel, here and there, temporary 
shelters or sheds, open in front, with sloping roof 
thatched with grass. Each traveling individual or party, 
on leaving such a place, deposits in a certain nook a 
small bundle of dry moss, birch bark, resin or twigs, to 
enable the next comer to kindle his fire without difficulty. 
This hospitable and thoughtful custom is never omitted. 
This is one of the many pleasant ways which the weird 
Alaskan savages have that their white civilized brothers 
would do well to imitate. 

These wild nimrods of the North have had their day. 
Already the axe strokes of the pioneers are ringing in 
their forests, and camp fires blaze along the mountain 
trails; steam whistles wake the echoes far up their 
mighty streams, and the smoke from many a white man's 
habitat rises and vanishes in the mists, as they, too, will 
vanish in that future time, when the Argonauts of 1897 
live in history as the creators of an empire by the North- 
ern Sea. 



/ 



&6lJ'ri 



Q 6 



